In Macedonia, beside the National and University Library “St. Kliment Ohridski” there is a network of about 200 libraries. Although the beginnings of library automation go back to 1977, the first serious steps in this direction were made by joining the SNTI/BIS project (Scientific and Technological Information System and Library and Information System), which stopped in 1991.
The year 1992 was indeed a sad turning point for the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was burnt down during the war. Since then, efforts supported by several international organisations have been made to renew the library.
St. Cyril and Methodius National Library has been operating since 1878. Today the library’s collection contains more than 7 million items, and there are 1 million bibliographic records in its databases.
Presented in this paper are the very beginnings of library automation in Slovenia, the current state and issues. A special emphasis is given on the automation level of larger libraries which, for the most part, are full members of the COBISS.SI system. The paper also contains comprehensive factual data on the system.
Libraries account for about 7 % of the total information market, which in terms of quantity makes them a significant part of this market. The roles they have been performing for centuries and for which they have been paid tremendous amounts of money, are in this modern world put under question.
By formulating its vision of development in the age of the IT revolution, the National Library of Serbia (Narodna biblioteka Srbije – NBS) has posed great challenge to managers in the organisational, staff and educational domain.
The paper presents impressions of the Preconference dealing with The Future of Serials Control: Implementation of the MARC21 Holdings Format, and those of the Annual 2001 ALA Conference. Special importance is given to both current holdings standards and issues and plans concerning the implementation of these standards within the serials check-in module of the world’s best known library systems.
