"...And you will sell us the rope"

Volume 17, Number 3 • March 2000

"...And you will sell us the rope" — An immense, Web-based Virtual Library is coming - and fairly soon
by Barbara Quint

QUINT'S ONLINE column discusses the creation of a Virtual Library that will have all the features offered by traditional libraries and a lot more. Maintains that the path to the Virtual Library puts today's library vendors and librarians on an inevitable collision course. Says that once the information and publishing industries have worked through the problems of designing attractive, usable online products, they could let the Web's entire global audience become the community instead of groups of localities. Notes that, for advertisers and sponsors, they can seek out the same companies that advertised in the original print versions. Points out that to get into a new market, vendors who sell to the library market will have to convince users to come to them directly and this strategy could ultimately eliminate the need for librarians or libraries.