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Describes the Business Information Center (BIC), which is located in the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The primary aim of the BIC, which is to access business information, to support the integration of information and technology into the curriculum, and to act as a center for research and development for state-of-the-art information technology applications in education and business; Design of the BIC, which serves as an electronic hub for the school, making it the only fully networked business school in the country; Strategy of Dean Roy Herberger in developing the BIC; Online database services which the BIC subscribes to, including DIALOG, DataTimes, ORBIT, and the DOW JONES NEWS/RETRIEVAL; Discussion of reference services which are available to library users.

This article looks at the development of a integrated library system by Georgia's Office of Public Library Services. Claiming that no integrated library system (ILS) meets its needs, the Public Information Network for Electronic Services (PINES) Consortium is developing its own. PINES includes 250 public libraries in 44 systems (out of Georgia's 58 library systems). It has over 1.3 million active users and includes nearly eight million items. "We're unique among consortia in that we are more centralized, with one single database on one server," explained Julie Walker, PINES systems administrator. "So we have more issues on all levels when looking for a solution." Walker reports that there are no products designed for a large consortia, nor were any vendors concentrating on this market in the near future. The goal is to have an alpha version of the cataloging, circulation, and OPAC modules by June 2005. "We'll take this to our members and the PINES executive committee for confirmation that we're headed in the right direction," Walker said. It is intended that all modules are live by the end of 2006.

Presents the author's views and observations related to library science. Call for readers to take the author's "highly unscientific" poll, attempting to assess what drives the selection of e-resources in libraries; Quote from Sam Brooks, Senior vice president of Sales & Marketing at EBSCO Information Services, regarding the trends in full-text databases; Discussion of Web-based music systems available to libraries; Web site addresses for Classical Music Library and Naxos Music Library.