"While the net may provide a new medium for dissent and opposition, its impact is offset by two principal factors." Factors cited include the digital divide and growing commercialism.
The design of a Cooperative Acqusition Programme (CAP) for a regional network -- ZALINET -- in China is discussed. The model is presented both descriptively and quantitatively ofr the purpose of design and planning. The types of participating libraries and potential network users are identified in the following sectors: research, education, production, government department, and marketing. A descriptive model has been worked out for the distribution of information resources. The assignment of responsibility for collection and allocation of information resources should be based on: the assessment of the colletion strenght and the subject biases of the libraries and information centres; the identification of geographical charactersisties of information resourc distribution; the differentiation of sector characteristics of information resources distribution; the identification of the resources already available, both human and material and estimation of future potential. In the descriptive model issues of CAP in ZALINET are proposed. The mathematical model intends to work out the optimum solution about total network coverage, overlapping degree of titles among libraries, and the duplication of titles with the libraries. The CEB model should be able to help the network manager decide how to carry out the cooperative acquistion program cost-effectively.
