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At the 20th IATUL Conference held in 1999 in Chania, Greece, the authors presented a paper The Future of the Academic Library and the Academic Librarian. A DELPHI Study 3. The aim of that study was to identify trends and present a probable scenario for the year 2005. After six years that have passed since the Conference in Chania, we live in a different world. Different not only because of terrorism and the latest natural disasters, but also because of changes in technology (e.g. the boom of mobile communication, transition from CD/DVD to online services, ease of digitization, etc.), internationalization of studies or changes in scholarly communication and publishing models, which in turn have imposed new law regulations. All these factors have strongly influenced libraries and changed the library image in a way hardly to be predicted 6 years ago. This paper presents the results of a new study conducted in 2005. It had two main objectives: • to verify the results of the previous study (comparison of the experts’ predictions with the reality as of the year 2005) • to make further extrapolation, focused on competencies that librarians should develop as professional information suppliers and experts, to meet future needs. A Delphi method of forecasting involves two consecutive rounds of questions, subsequent analysis of the responses to the open and closed questions and a development of the expert consensus about the topic of the study. The panel of experts was composed of the librarians and information professionals many of who were also involved in the previous study.

Identifies the most important trends in changes that are occurring in academic libraries and their impact on the role of the academic library as a whole, with focus on the skills and characteristics of a new‐century librarian. To achieve this goal a Delphi study was conducted between December 1998 and April 1999 involving 23 key library experts from ten countries. The study was entitled: “What will be the role of an academic library and skills of an academic librarian in the year 2005?”

In this paper, the authors present the results of research on the use of software tools for data collection and analysis in strategic and current library management. Special attention has been paid to StatuS and Performance Analysis for Polish Research Libraries (AFBN) — the tools most frequently used by Polish academic librarians. StatuS is used by the academic libraries of Krakow Library Group and several other libraries in Poland. Performance Analysis of Polish Research Libraries (AFBN) is a national project. Its main objective is to create standards for Polish libraries based on a set of performance indicators. AFBN consists of the e-survey, a database and special software for the collection and analysis of data. The surveys are submitted by academic and public research libraries once a year. The research on the application of selected software tools for data collection and analysis in library management in Polish academic libraries was conducted in February and March 2009. Results of the research reflect attitudes of managers toward usability of such tools to support various aspects of managerial processes.

The paper reports the results of the on-going research on performance indicators and library statistics for Polish research libraries. It is a continuation of activity realised in the frame of the EU Tempus Project "Development of Library Management as a Part of the University Total Quality Management". The Task Group for Standardisation presently conducts it in the frame of the national project financed from the funds of the Ministry of National Education and Sport. The first part of the paper presents the results of the EU Tempus Project. The second part describes the tools for library performance evaluation applied in 2003. The authors discuss some issues related to preparation of an online questionnaire for comparative studies and computer program for quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. The final part reports the analysis of data and performance indicators derived from technical university libraries. The paper presented on behalf of the Task Group for Standardisation.