IBM and Altavista estimate some 500,000,000 pages. The WWW provides access to a huge and constantly growing amount of information. It was not designed, however, as an information source, but as a tool for communication. The quality of the content is therefore as good or bad as the match between the sender s input and the receiver s needs. The Internet allows institutions to present their aims and mission to a large audience without significant costs for printing and mailing.
Scientists can publish their work directly on the net.
Libraries can open their catalogues and services to the public in a way that is cheap and easy, at least in comparison to printed catalogues or commercial databases. The Internet, with email, ftp, telnet and the WWW, not only opens a new dimension in communication between libraries and their users, but also between the library and the information community. The answer to many questions is somewhere out there . An expert for any given subject might be just a mouseclick away. But more and more answers can be found Just in Time , and for free, on the web.