In the Future, 'Virtual Libraries'

Outlining a vision for the "virtual library" of the future, the interim president and provost of Emory University yesterday told participants at a Harvard conference that new technology will someday link libraries all over the world.

In the keynote speech of the "Gateways to Knowledge" conference, Billy E. Frye said that in the future, libraries everywhere will be able to share and dispense information.

The conference's title refers to a system of "gateways" to be implemented soon at Harvard's Lamont and Cabot Libraries that will help users negotiate a multitude of information sources including CD-ROM, on-line databases and microforms, as well as ordinary books.

But despite Harvard's planned "gateways," Lawrence Dowler, associate librarian of Harvard College for public services, said Harvard is not a leader in interactive technology. "Actually, we're trying to catch up with some of the libraries we've invited [to the conference]," he said.

Frye said that, in an age of limited college resources, "the strength of libraries cannot be maintained through traditional strategies." For example, he said it would be nearly impossible for an academic library to keep pace with the "almost exponential growth" of periodicals, which, he said, had increased in price 400 percent since 1973.

To give researchers access to this wealth of information, Frye said libraries must cooperate and electronically share information in the "virtual library" of the future.

"Through telecommunications, all libraries will be linked and users can access material regardless of where it is physically, if, indeed, it does have a physical location."

The "virtual library" would also solve the problems of limited shelf space and disintegration of old books that almost all libraries face.

Richard DeGennaro, Larsen librarian of Harvard College, said Harvard students should look for new technology to appear in the libraries within the next few years. One change he noted was the current construction of a local area network, which would link Harvard to information sources around Boston.

The two-day event, held at Longfellow Hall, continues through today and is sponsored by the Harvard College Library.