Many have acquired the skills to use hypertext mark-up language in order to prepare text which can be read by web browsers. Library home pages contain all sorts of local information about opening hours, registration, staff, services, publications and other literature. Most fulfill another role and that is providing links to other selected network resources. They are often used as a basis for introducing users to network resources and help to provide a unified interface to local and remote information. They can be used as an aid to training and give a good starting point for a users exploration of the internet.
Librarians can only offer and maintain links to selected resources.
We have to fall back on pointers to general guides and internet search engines to assist our users in their quest for information. With the current state of the network this is a perfectly sensible approach to take as end users are just as capable as librarians of browsing lists of resources and perhaps are even more capable as they are the ultimate users of the information. Our skills as librarians rest more in selecting and organising network information in order to save the users time and this is something we've been doing successfully with traditional resources for quite some time. As I said at the beginning of this talk, my library has only really undertaken the first two of these roles and we've only just started to put together our own web pages. In my organisation internet access is widely available from users own computers and the Centre for Computing Services who provide technical help and support.