In this paper I will focus on the virtual academic library as a place and as a structure or shell for serial information access and services. Specifically, I will relate some of our practical experience of planning, building and organizing library services in the new Kelvin Smith Library, just opened, on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The library was planned and designed from the start to be a "library of the future" or "virtual library" and relies heavily on supply of information through electronic resources as well as through traditional means. We will present what we see as the future from our experience and will present a model which is serial based, our "shared digital library" which is based on the proven success of cooperative bibliographic database efforts such as OCLC and RLIN.