As the informaton society develops, traditional libraries and information providers are changing: moving from physical `places` to digital `spaces`. Electronic resources supplement and in part replace local holdings, and formerly stand-alone services are increasingly integrated into institution-wide, country-wide or regional facilities. Despite this, there remain huge distributed collections of printed material, not available in electronic format but still of high relevance to forest research and even though electronic publishing is growing fast, so is print: every year sees a further rise in the numbers of printed scientific journals published. The provision of access to non-electronic material is thus a key element of the Global Forest Information Service and this paper examines the role of libraries in meeting that challenge. Libraries have traditionally had both a curatorial and an educational role, which applies as much to electronic as to conventional resources. Digital material poses difficulties in organisation, long-term retention and preservation, just as other media do, and librarians have long experience in devising innovative solutions to these problems. The profession is devoted both to the preservation and dissemination of knowledge, working with educators and researchers to facilitate its creation, sharing and use. The computer and the internet in particular, provide powerful tools in aiding this process, but human input is required in all three of its facets, machine based systems speed up its operation, but also create increasing demands for reliable, well-evaluated resources and high-quality education in their use. Libraries within the GFIS subject envelope can help meet these demands by : - locating, describing and classifying relevant resources in all formats - guiding local and remote users in their most efficient use - providing rapid access to requested material by traditional and electronic means - identifying non-electronic resources for digitisation - organising the creation and maintenance of digital archives - providing local access to electronic resources which cannot be globally networked - developing inter-connected catalogues hyperlinked directly to electronic resources - encouraging IT literacy and the development of electronic publishing - advising on copyright and other intellectual property issues - publicising GFIS in conjunction with local and regional networks of all sorts - offering a `human face` for electronic systems, in a familiar context and local language. This paper reviews how far these and related activities have already progressed, what more can be implemented with current technology and which areas need further investment.

Internet applications have evolved in many ways during recent years. One extraordinary development is the multiple use of World Wide Web features. This is especially true in the scientific context, but developments in e-commerce, web-based messaging, cyber-administration, distance learning or in the entertainment industry are also shaping interpersonal communication and business proccesses. These changes can be observed in the forestry and wood sector as well as in the field of forest sciences, e.g., electronic publications, directory information on the Web, archives of mailing lists, downloading of software, e-shop facilities, document repositories, modelling programmes. In fact, facing the mass of data available by an Internet address (URL) on the Web the user is looking for support in locating, filtering, selecting or sorting relevant information. The retrieval process has become - in a paradoxical manner - simpler and more complex at the same time. New search engines may link very fast to a specific document or data set by their weighting mechanisms. However, in other cases only the visit of an authoritative source on the net will allow to search for the information needed in a database stored "locally". A few examples will illustrate the current situation with respect to both fee-based services and publicly accessible data. As far as forestry research is concerned one can expect quite a broad range of bibliographic collections available through web interfaces : library catalogues / web-OPAC, publisher`s price lists, table of contents or cited references produced by research institutions and scholarly associations, personal homepages, etc. Additionally one can find other types of reference information, i.e., current research descriptions, meta-data services, media collections (images, audio files, ...) or even basic data on patent literature. Terminological aids, classification schemes, virtual libraries and other tools which facilitate a high quality profile of interaction within the scientific community are increasingly in use on the Web. IUFRO is also supporting these activities by its website and special projects, namely the Task Force GFIS (Global Forest Information Service), the terminology clearinghouse SilvaVoc, its bibliographies/catalogue, search engine, and documents in PDF. The Task Force on Internet Resources has contributing in the past to setting up a basic information infrastructure in favour of the IUFRO research network.