This paper discusses the importance, historical significance, and prestige of the Computer Simulation Archive (https://d.lib.ncsu.edu/computer-simulation/) at North Carolina State University Libraries, including its importance to the field of simulation and its place in the broader context of esearch library archival collections.

Escalating textbook costs and continually evolving technologies for delivering course content have combined to place the "textbook problem" at a boiling point ripe for systemic change. This article describes two efforts to address the "textbook problem" by offering incentive grants to faculty members who adopt, adapt, or create open educational resources (OERs) to replace costly textbooks. It describes programs at UMass Amherst and North Carolina State University and discusses the role of the library as a campus leader, educating faculty on new textbook models and investigating and providing incentives to incubate change.

The rise of emerging technologies and the evolving needs of scholars have emboldened libraries to experiment more directly with digital scholarship. This chapter of The No Shelf Required Guide to E-book Purchasing examines the problems associated with print textbooks and how electronic textbooks, although still an emerging technology, provide a viable future alternative.

Academic libraries need to change their recruiting and hiring procedures to stay competitive in today's changing marketplace. By taking too long to find and to hire talented professionals in a tight labor market, academic libraries are losing out on top candidates and limiting their ability to become innovative and dynamic organizations. Traditional, deliberate, and risk-averse hiring models lead to positions remaining open for long periods, opportunities lost as top prospects find other positions, and a reduction in the overall talent level of the organization. To be more competitive and effective in their recruitment and hiring processes, academic libraries must foster manageable internal solutions, look to other professions for effective hiring techniques and models, and employ innovative concepts from modern personnel management literature.

Information consulting is essential to the success, lasting impact, and viability of academic libraries. Traditional liaison programs, while helpful, are too passive and lack impact. Topics such as the driving forces behind the need for information consulting, the implications of implementing a consulting program, and the elements of successful consulting are explored.

The article reviews the book Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Humanistic Studies of the Environment. University of Massachusetts Press, 2000. 368 p. $50.00 (ISBN 1-55849-220-8), edited by Jill Ker Conway, Kenneth Keniston, and Leo Marx.

Here we examine the accuracy and relevance of the predictions made in "The Reference Librarian of the Future: A Scenario," an article published in RQ in 1985. We also discuss the evolution of reference service over the past fifteen years. In this analysis, three distinct periods emerge: the classical period, the experimental period, and the eclectic period. We also explore such topics as reference services, the roles and responsibilities of: reference librarians, organizational structures, leadership, information technologies, and information access.

This article reviews the book Holding On to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1999. 274 p. $22.00 (ISBN 0-226-06625-8) by Albert Borgmann.

This article reviews the book Searching Smart on the World Wide Web: Tools and Techniques for Getting Quality Results. Internet Workshop Series Number 8. Berkeley: Library Solutions Press, 1998, by Cheryl Gould.