Switched on searching in a wired world: information retrieval in the new millennium (or riding the crest of the wave without drowning): 20 years on from MIDAS

Roxanne Missingham and Leoni Warne
rmissingham@nla.gov.au, leoni.warne@dsto.defence.gov.au

In 1979 MIDAS was launched in Australia, providing the first example of a single dial-up gateway to multiple information providers. The paper explores issues for Australian libraries and information users in the pre-MIDAS environment, from early experiments with Chemical Abstracts in 1968, through the MIDAS years, with an explosion in information sources to the Internet and the new profusion of sources and resource discovery issues. The new expectations of information seekers and the implications for libraries in skills and service development provide an extension of the MIDAS vision beyond the dreams of its creators.