Describes genesis of New York Metropolitan Reference and Research Library Agency (METRO) and the interlibrary services it offers. Laws and grants, cooperative acquisitions, continuing education for library staff, and suggestions for planning cooperatives (include all types of libraries, develop effective patterns of communication, develop shared…

Describes features of the acquisitions subsystem of the online computer system introduced by the Washington Library Network and offered to all participants who use the subsystem and all interested vendors, noting equipment and programs used, and online ordering procedures available. (EJS)

This report describes the Library Networking Committee's cooperative collection development project, focusing on workshops which met to discuss five subject areas with the greatest potential for cooperative acquisition in northern Virginia: art resources, energy and environment, health science, law, and urban affairs. Workshops in the areas of…

Results of Pittsburgh Regional Library Center Serials Cancellation Project are discussed, providing insight into problems and opportunities of multi-institution collection management decision-making using the online catalog. Previous attempts to coordinate collection management decisions, cancellation of serial titles, an online standard code for…

This report describes the Scandiaplan, a plan for coordinating the acquisition of materials among several special and research libraries in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Elements covered include prerequisites for developing a cooperative acquisition program, the history of the Scandiaplan, technical and economic problems, goals of the…

This description of resource sharing by the university (i.e., national), libraries of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda examines such factors as finance, communication, and dependence on imported literature. In discussing the acquisition of local literature, it is established that the greatest amount of resource sharing is inter-university, while…

Major activities of the Library of Congress (LC) for 1978, given more detailed attention in the complete annual report, are summarized here under three broad headings: services to the Congress, to other libraries, and to the public. Services of the Library's Congressional Research Service (CRS) which are briefly described include reference and…

This syllabus for a continuing education course describes the OCLC system and considers how it can be used by health science libraries. The general governance and administrative structure of OCLC and its network affiliates are detailed, and the OCLC subsystems--online union catalog, serials, interlibrary loan, and acquisitions--and their major…

This group of documents presents material on collection development and a list of collection intensity indicators from the Research Libraries Group (RLG), as well as examples of collection assessment techniques from seven members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). ARL member documents cover the assessment of art periodical,…

Scandinavian library cooperation, which began informally in the nineteenth century, has benefited from similarities in language, history, background, political system, ideals, and materials, and has been comparatively easy to establish. The Scandia Plan, launched in the 1950's, was the first Scandinavian library cooperation program to receive…

OCLC is a computer network system providing an online union catalog and cataloging, interlibrary loan, serials control, name-address directory, acquisitions, and circulation control services to over 4000 user terminals linked together by dedicated leased telephone lines or by dial access systems. OCLC users have at their fingertips online files of…

This narrative report relates the activities of the Bibliographic Automation of Large Library Operations using a Time-sharing System (BALLOTS) program at Stanford University for the original contract period and extensions, during which time the original single-user system was transformed into an automated network of libraries across the country.…

A six-month study was conducted to determine the library automation system requirements of the North Bay Cooperative Library System in Northern California. Six areas of possible automation were identified: (1) circulation; (2) interlibrary loan; (3) acquisitions; (4) physical processing and cataloging; (5) union catalog; and (6) film booking. Six…

Online database searching experiences of nine Illinois public libraries--Arlington Heights, Deerfield, Elk Grove Village, Evanston, Glenview, Northbrook, Schaumburg Township, Waukegan, Wilmette--are discussed, noting search costs, user charges, popular databases, library acquisition, interaction with users, and staff training. Three sources are…

Discusses the changes in the social and economic environment that have pushed libraries into retreating from their traditional objective of preserving the cultural record, and suggests that the solution to this problem must be sought by means of national-level resource and cost-sharing programs. A 21-item reference list is included. (Author/JL)