Optical publishing: Effects on reference services

Recent technological developments are having a major effect on the delivery of reference services. The most recent of these, optical storage technology (specifically CD-ROM), has been touted as the most important development in publishing since the printing press. While this appears to represent a level of hype that is most probably not deserved, it now appears clear that reference services are beginning to be changed in significant ways. This technology does not represent a qualitatively different service, but it will have a very dramatic effect on the economics of delivering certain types of services.published or submitted for publicatio