Art. 1: Bożena Bednarek-Michalska,
Free access to information and knowledge or educational exclusion? - World trends and Poland

The article deals with transformations in the area of access to scientific resources that have occurred around the world in the past several years. In particular, the article discusses the open access and open archives model, as well as, changes in financing projects to create research study archives. Additionally, the current conditions surrounding this area in Poland are analysed.

Art. 2: Barbara Niedźwiedzka ,
Free scientific publications and research study archives in medicine .

In the article, the author describes the movement to release and open scientific medical publications around the world. She talks amply about the participation of medical libraries in creating online journals and building open-access resources.

Art. 3: Ewa Kołodzińska,
Information on electronic journals in Polish research libraries - current status and future outlook.

The article attempts to analyse the library information services, especially the level of information on journals available online. It discusses solutions that could improve the quality of this information, such as, systems managing the electronic resources, library portals or simultaneous searching tools. It also directs attention to the possibility of adapting to international standards in this area by participating in shared cataloguing using NUKAT.

Art. 4: Małgorzata Krawczyk,
The role and functioning of publications exchange in shaping collections of research libraries in the era of transformations.

The article elaborates on publications exchange practices in Polish research libraries. It brings focus to the influence of this method of acquisitions on shaping library collections. The character of exchange practices and their significance in Poland are discussed on the basis of survey study results from 2002.

Art. 5: Maciej Weryho,
Stand on the shoulders of giants - Google Scholar.

The article presents the most popular searching tool on the WWW, the Google search engine, and its new service, the Google Scholar, which collects and provides access to scientific documents. The original solutions, options and ways of formulating search terms are discussed.

Art. 6: Marta Grabowska,
STANDARDS: disseminated, openly accessed or sold? Can an institution that standardizes others organize itself?

The author discusses her several-year experience of working in the Standardization Commission no. 242: Information and documentation of the Polish Committee for Standardization. She describes her battle with the Polish Committee for Standardization to obtain public information status for standards.

Art. 7: Agnieszka Strojek,
The right of access to public information.

The article aims to introduce the Law on public information access in the light of its potential significance in the changing functions of libraries and information centres, which are opening more and more to the needs of its user communities. More importantly, the author points to the problems of interpreting access laws. She shows the difficulties with terminology, which are essential to the correct interpretation of the Law.