The following is a summary of the findings. Applications that will allow clients to access networked information much more widely are just around the corner. While fast-developing network services pave the way for fully digital libraries, no library can any longer manage without a computer system. This is bad news for small libraries in small municipalities which are forced to dismantle old but functional work practices in a losing struggle to keep up. More profound cooperation would be their salvation.
Computer systems demand resources of many kinds, and have insatiable appetites for money.
The surprise is that this should come as a surprise to anyone involved with them. Keeping track of the resources required by, or possibly saved by, computer systems has been poorly handled. Nobody can say whether or how computers have in fact helped library staff, and cost-benefit analyses are in their infancy. There is a desperate need for criteria to define standards for library computer systems, to provide guidance both for suppliers when designing systems and for users when ordering them. Inequality is growing.