A series of questions to guide discussions were developed by the National Library in consultation with the Sydney University library staff. The list of questions is included as Attachment 1 . Role of the library All the academics at the meeting admitted they seldom visit the library in person, because so much of the literature is now available electronically. However, for monographs, conference proceedings and older journals a library visit is often necessary. Surprisingly, the importance of monographs was emphasised by several of the academics.
Monographs draw together the research on a subject and present it in a coherent fashion.
The academics felt they were generally kept well informed about library developments, but admitted they would usually take more notice of advice from colleagues about the usefulness of information sources. Some had attended a recent library colloquium about new information sources and had found this useful. They saw the role of the library in the future as assuring access and managing the administrative aspects of online resources. The library staff mentioned that services such as Web of Science are providing valuable links from bibliographic sources to full text. This was appreciated, although it seems the academics themselves want to be able to teach students how to find information, and admitted that referring students to indexes in the past was often not done because it was not providing them with actual information.