UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES AND The INFORMATION NEEDS OF The RESEARCHER 1: A PROVIDER'S VIEW

We all know by now about the information explosion, namely that there is too much uncontrolled knowledge floating around, and that by the end of the century an overpopulated world will be submerged under a mass of paper, film, magnetic tape, discs, drums, crystals, or whatever other vehicle for information has been discovered by then. What has not been pointed out, so far as I know, is that the literature on the information explosion is expanding at an even faster rate than the information which is exploding, so that by the year 2000 the bulk of the literature is likely to consist of literature on methods of coping with itself. Having made this alarming prophecy, I must now do my bit towards fulfilling it.