THE GLOBAL LIBRARY - BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES AND SOCIAL-SCIENCE INFORMATION

The article considers the rapid development of unrestricted access to online library catalogs (OPACs) and other resources on the Internet - information sources relevant for people engaged in the social sciences. In a special section some of the most important international bibliographic databases relevant to the social sciences and available on CD-ROM or from online hosts are listed. The need for user-friendly, menu-driven interfaces in retrieval software is stressed. The availability of full-text sources, networked CD-ROMS, multimedia, and the wealth of OPACs, file transfer possibilities, electronic mail, network conferences, electronic publishing, and other information services on the Internet is bringing the world of know ledge towards a "global" library available at the user's fingertips, only a few keystrokes away.