The technological developments of recent years--in particular, the advance of microcomputers, optical disks, and data communications via Local Area Networks (LAN) and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)--will change the capabilities of the large, centralized information systems as well as those of the smaller local or private installations in fairly obvious ways. Some special points mentioned in this paper are the reduction of connect time due to local preprocessing, the downloading, and the replacement of less frequently used journal subscriptions by online access.