It is likely that reading rooms will in the future need to provide access to more CD-ROMs than at present. This constitutes an additional information resource which can increase the demand for seats.
In the discussion which follows, patent CD-ROMs are excluded because they represent a special case. The use of digital patent data is discussed in section 8.3.
CD-ROMs are considered separately here because of the commercial limitations imposed by their suppliers. Where CD-ROM suppliers allow networked use of their products, this is almost always limited to within one building or (occasionally) within one institution. Remote network access by members of the public is not usually possible; though negotiation of such rights is conceivable, it would be more problematic than in the case of online digital journals.
At present, the provision for reader access to CD-ROMs is uneven in the different reading rooms. In summary, readers have access to:
The total number of CD-ROMs included in the above is less than 200. By contrast, there are in the order of 20,000 published CD-ROM titles, and the rate of publication is increasing. Although the number of CD-ROMs published is much smaller than the number of monographs, some contain more information that any monograph; the text capacity of a CD-ROM is equivalent to hundreds of books.
The British Library expects to collect larger numbers of CD-ROMs in future, mainly as a result of changes in legal deposit provision. Many of the CD-ROMs which might be deposited will have multimedia content; this report makes no assumption about the resolution of questions posed by the introduction of sound and moving images into reading rooms.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek is planning for the introduction of 40 multimedia workstations to cope with demand for its anticipated collection of some 10,000 CD-ROMs. A key question appears to be whether access to CD-ROMs will displace access to printed books. If the CD-ROMs are used primarily for reference, then it could be assumed that access to books will be correspondingly reduced, leading to a roughly neutral effect. If on the other hand the CD-ROMs are used fully for other purposes (such as educational, training and/or entertainment functions) then it seems likely that demand would be in addition to existing demand for printed materials.
Policies on collection, access and admission will play a large part in determining the eventual effect on demand for space. As an example, individuals wishing to use an expensive instructional CD-ROM which is not stocked in public libraries could require access for hours or days at a time; this would represent a new form of demand.
The addition of CD-ROMs in large numbers to the Library’s holdings may increase demand for space, depending on policies adopted.
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