s eI e ct e d inf ormati o n obj e cts r ln every age, humankind imagines itsell' to be moving through a period of transition so acute that the efl'ect borders on the dysfunctional. Our own age is no exception. We long {br a simpler past, or for a more {bcused {uture, but the fact is that every era is one ofpro{bund change, and it is now our turn. Because we have come to understand ourselves mainly in technical terms, we necessarily and correctly view our transition as a consequence of

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... y, and those of us in academic libraries see our main obiective as the translbrmation of academic information services liom a primarily paper-based activity to an increasingly electronic one. Ifwe had our druthers, we wouldprobably opt to build two libraries-one traditional and one digital; we could then gradually shift resources {iom the traditional to the digital as needed. Fortunately {br academic libraries and higher education, we do not have anything approaching the means that would be reouired to create such a schism-because ii'we did. those two libraries would inevitably become politically &sa{Iected and veer apart, and the library as an institution Ross ArxrxsoN (RA13@cornell.edu) is