How to harness technology for better end-user services

Librarians agree that it is a prevalent misconception that people believe they can get any information they want on the WWW when in fact, the Web provides a mishmash of information. Current information is the norm, and users must be very discerning. The Web and other technological innovations, though, do provide excellent ways to offer information. The challenge is in providing and organizing pertinent information. In striving to meet the patrons' demand for electronic resources, Texas A&M General Libraries is participating in several technological collaborative projects. Like other universities and colleges, we can not go it alone to provide electronic resources due to the enormous expense. We spend 1.5 million dollars a year on databases and e-journals, and this is a small portion of resources that we offer. It is hoped that by sharing the cost of providing electronic products co-operatively, we can increase electronic access. The projects to be discussed are TexShare, The Big 12 Plus Libraries Consortium, BioOne, and the Web of Science(R) EIDS Service. These ventures include database sharing, document delivery and a full-text publication project.