Chapter 3 - The Research Libraries Group

Abstract

This chapter discusses history and development of the Research Libraries Group (RLG), which is a nonprofit corporation, owned and governed by 36 of the nation's major universities and other research institutions. It is dedicated to improving the management of and access to the information resources necessary for the advancement of scholarship. RLG operates an international computer network and a large mainframe computer system to provide a technical infrastructure for its cooperative programs. Collectively, this infrastructure is called the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN). Most RLIN computer services are implemented as host-based application programs accessed via terminals. Except for the screen-editing facilities of the data-entry terminals used in RLG's private network, all intelligence is provided by the RLIN host computer. Such terminal access is likely to remain important for some time to come. However, RLG believes that eventually most application software, that is, the software providing the interactive user interface and data-manipulation and display facilities, should be run on the increasingly powerful workstations now being used by scholars and students. The RLIN system then would function primarily as a large-scale database server in a wide area network.