AbstractThe article deals with some key factors influencing academic libraries in Slovenia at present. On one hand they have to follow the trends in all academic libraries in the world while on the other hand Slovenia is entering the European higher education arena and a lot of significant changes are expected to occur. They will be introduced gradually by the year 2010 but it is hard to predict their influence on the higher education sector and on academic libraries as well. However, little attention is paid to academic libraries in the relevant international and national documents concerning higher education although they represent the base for university teaching, learning and research. Library services are determined by the Slovenian Library Act and other regulations in the field of librarianship. Academic libraries are also influenced by the recent changes in Slovenian tertiaty education field: the emergence of a new university and new faculties founded by the public sector, some of them have not established a library yet. Besides, the Slovenian academic library sector is decentralized, especially the system of the University of Ljubljana. Therefore it is very hard to prepare common principles, standards or guidelines for the entire Slovenian academic library sector. The question is what changes will be brought about by the European arena of higher education and of the newly introduced lump sum distribution rules of financial means given to the university.