Back to top External Assessment 1 Information is now doubling every two to three years, instead of every ten. Glut has replaced scarcity as an information seeking challenge. Librarians, with the help of computer scientists, must assist students and faculty in focusing their attention on the most relevant information available. The emerging digital library requires that local libraries have high-end computers for students and staff, and that these be replaced at least every two years under the precepts of Moore's Law. 2 Forty percent of the libraries' university funding is spent on purchasing books and journals and licensing electronic materials the prices of which are externally controlled.
Libraries are a third party payer in the scientific and scholarly communications system.
Diversification into formats such as slides, videos, computer programs, and compact disks is technically feasible as bandwidth and storage increase, but will require new library strategies. Revisions to the Copyright Law may diminish Fair Use provisions that now allow the scientific and scholarly community to share information somewhat freely. Based on continuing environmental scans. 2 Moore's law was first laid out by Intel co-founded Gordon Moore. It states that the processsing power of a computer chip gets twice as powerful every 18 months, while its prices stay the same.