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(This message may be off topic, but I'll try posting it here anyway.) I learned this morning that Duke University will be giving away bunches o' iPods to incoming freshman, and they will be come pre-filled with content for the students' schoolwork: http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/news/ipods_0704.html Extend this further. Imagine in the future an entire library on an thing the size of an iPod. I'm not talking about just indexes and catalogs. Rather, I'm talking digitized, full text content. All of the encyclopedia. All of the books in the stacks. All of the journals since forever. All of the videos and music. All of the things from Special Collections and archives. Everything. The entire collection. What would a library be in such a scenario? I don't think it would be very much about collections because everybody would be carrying the entire collection around in their pocket. Instead, I think library would be more about service -- ways to use and interpret the information/knowledge in the collection. My point is two-fold. First, collections without services is like the sound of one hand clapping. Both are required in order for libraries to exist. Second, in a digital environment, libraries had better wake up, smell the coffee, and work on ways to provide more services digitally. As access becomes increasingly irrelevant, everybody will have access, other services will have to become more important, such as interpretation and manipulation. -- Eric "Early Morning Musing" Morgan