This article describes the development of the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA). The VIVA statistics-processing system remains a work in progress. Member libraries will benefit from the ability to obtain the actual data from the VIVA site, rather than just the summaries, so a project to make these data available is currently being planned. The…

The nine papers presented in this report attempt to discuss and describe Canadian library networks and systems as they exist today and as they are being planned for future development at the local, provincial, regional, and national levels. The first report provides, as an example, an overview of library systems and networking in Britain as they…

Effect of automation on technical and public services, with emphasis on library and human organizational changes. (Author)

This description of the Africa Bibliographic Centre (ABC) concept--which is still in a formative stage--provides brief summaries of the 12 components of the system, including an African lending library, bibliographic publishing, a commission on information and bibliographic systems, an African microfiche publications center, African abstracting…

Summarizes a report presented at the First UNISIST Meeting of Experts in Regional Information Policy and Planning in Southeast Asia. The report briefly reviews the trends and developments of scientific and technological information activities in Australia. (VT)

This document describes a proposed computer to computer protocol for electronic communication of digital information over a nationwide library bibliographic network. The protocol allows application tasks at one site on the network to converse with application tasks at any other site, regardless of differences in computer architecture or operating…

Research Libraries Group (RLG) is a corporation owned by 26 academic libraries in the United States. To accomplish their goals, RLG maintains a computerized library services system known as the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN). The RLIN system (and subsystems), design considerations, functions, and benefits for RLG members. (Author/JN)

The Task Group advocates the development, with the guidance and support of the National Library of Canada, of a Canadian Library Network with the objectives of equalizing opportunity for access to information and making use of total Canadian library resources more cost-effective. This network would be composed of three interrelated components--a…

Five years ago, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) funded an Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) study of the impact of new information and communications technologies on the roles of health sciences libraries in a radically changing health care and educational environment. A key recommendation of the resulting report called for…

The Ohio College Library Center (OCLC) is a nonprofit computerized library processing center operating out of Columbus, Ohio. Six years after its incorporation, OCLC is now mainly in the business of operating a shared cataloging system and producing catalog cards designed to meet the needs of each of its member libraries. OCLC also maintains a…

The operation of the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC) on-line bibliographic system in Texas and New Mexico Libraries was evaluated. The economic aspects of automated cataloging and card production were compared with previous methods; the effectiveness of the system as a tool for pre-order searching was evaluated; and the impact of the system's…

This monograph is an overview of the present and possible future trends in networking, the use of computer communications technology to facilitate the sharing of information and computer resources over great distances. The text reviews networks already being used by universities to share instructional resources and computing ability, and by…