Library automation, focussed as it has been on the OPAC, is really only one component in an information strategy. That strategy is necessarily about keeping options open and recognizing the fact that the information technology (IT) curve is short and continuously changing. In her column Elaine Peterson gives the brief for moving from ad hoc decisions to “strategic thinking” for our IT decisions, suggesting the variety of issues on which such a shift is dependent. She also makes the case that it is time to expand our view of the credentials which define the “professional” cadre in our libraries. It might be added that to be flexible and nimble does not require staying on the “bleeding edge,” but it does require choices informed first by asking the right questions and by an understanding of what is coming “down the pike.” For instance, we know that open systems and the insistence on standards will, in the future, allow us to be less dependent on one vendor's products; that client/ server architecture will allow us to present diverse databases as cohesive and seamless resources; and that networks will mean that information resources may be distributed on the Internet, yet immediately available locally.—C.B.L., Carnegie Mellon University.