It will also allow for new types of information to be disseminated at low cost and high speed that cannot be represented on paper. We refer to visualizations, animations, andsimulations that in many fields are crucial for explaining and understanding scientific phenomena. The roles of publishers, distributors, and librarians will also undergo changes because different ways will be found to bring information from the producerto the consumer. Any project addressing this area will be confronted with technical and nontechnical problems at the same time. Authors expect advice on how to prepareinformation that is to be consumed in an electronic environment.
Publishers are concerned about user acceptance, asset protection, and accounting.
An academiclibrarian wants to learn how to administer users and the users want to know where to look for relevant information and how to get at it swiftly and quickly. These are just examples of the questions that come to mind. For computer scientists, the topic of digital libraries has twofold implications. As in all other fields there will be new ways and means for publication and communication. In addition, many questions raised are genuine research topics in computerscience.