Publishing revolution? Response and responsibility of the library

The combination of the technical opportunities offered by ICT and the financial problems arising from commercial exploitation of traditional scientific journals has brought us to the brink of a publishing revolution. Conservatism in the scientific community makes a rapid evolution of scientific publishing more likely. Come what may, libraries have their own responsibilities to their clients and to their parent organisations and they must play an active role in the redesign of the publishing business process. Examples are given as to how this can be done at a local level and at a national level. Optimal exploitation of the new opportunities requires the involvement of the scientists themselves.