THE CHANGING LIBRARY ENVIRONMENT

In simpler times, libraries operated in a relatively closed environmen t. Apart from book dealers and the local administration, few other par ticipants impinged on library operations. Now libraries must operate w ithin an environment with many players. These include systems vendors, bibliographic utilities, a wide range of suppliers, and a whole serie s of support agencies, some of which are part of the institutional bac kground while others include consortia, vendors, maintenance suppliers , and grant agencies. Not least among these new influences are the var ious electronic services, which have raised high expectations on the p art of library users. In order to maintain their programs, libraries m ust adapt to these changes even with shrinking budgets and more demand s on funds.