Digital material: competition and rivalries

The arrival of the Web, by making possible the transfer of paper documents to digital documents, has triggered off numerous challenges in exercising information management skills. Intermediation in particular is seriously contested. Publishers, booksellers, libraries, prepublication databases are all entering into competition. The excessive increase in the price of journals and questions about the eventual availability of periodicals are causes of dissension among the parties involved. Libraries must avoid sterile rivalries and favour cooperation in order to pursue their missions by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the new technologies.
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