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RLG is a not-for-profit international alliance of about 160 members, including universities and colleges, national and public research libraries, archives, historical societies, museums, and independent research collections devoted to improving access to information that supports research and learning. Founded in 1974 as the Research Libraries Group by four visionary library directors from Columbia, Harvard and Yale universities and the New York Public Library, the consortium formed to allow research institutions to tackle tough challenges via collaborative action. Key issues were managing the transition from locally self-sufficient and independently comprehensive collections to a system of interdependencies that would preserve and enhance the capacity for research in all fields of knowledge and improving the ability to locate and retrieve relevant research resources (RLG, 1986). At its inception, four activity areas were identified for collaborative action: cooperative bibliographic control and access; effective mechanisms for sharing information and resources among member institutions; expanded and coordinated collection development efforts; and preservation of the collections, either in the original or surrogate format.

Operating at the crossroads of higher education, librarianship, technology application, and service delivery, the Research Libraries Group (RLG) is a powerful partner to institutional efforts. For 20 years, it has identified critical research needs, provided responsive solutions, and expanded access to new and untapped information resources. With its highly skilled staff, sophisticated technical resources, and successful track record in managing and supporting interactions among its members, RLG is well positioned to help research institutions address the information challenges of the 1990s.

The Research Libraries Group, Inc., a partnership of U.S. research institutions, operates and is expanding a computerized bibliographic and technical processing network called the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN). It is one of four programs currently conducted by RLG. This paper outlines the nature and scope of RLIN through summaries of primary aspects of an operating computer network: hardware environment; software; systems, data bases, and services provided; user training and documentation; costs; governance; and development plans.

The big news this month was the collapse of negotiations between OCLC and the Research Libraries Group (RLG). More precisely, it was the decision by the RLG board to discontinue the negotiations.

The RLG (Research Libraries Group) conspectus was developed in 1980 by the Collection Management and Development Committee of the Research Libraries Group. The committee was comprised of one representative from each full and associate RLG member institution. David H. Stam served as Chairman of the committee and Paul Mosher served as Vice‐Chairman. Anticipating the challenges of acquisitions budgeting in a period of inflationary pricing for library materials, the committee worked to identify a methodology in which RLG member libraries could better coordinate the growth and management of their collections. The result was the development of the RLG conspectus.

The Research Libraries Group, Inc. (RLG), a nationwide consortium of research institutions, operates the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), an information system and communications network that supports RLG's cooperative programs as well as the technical processing and public services requirements of research libraries. Changes in communications technology, in the regulatory environment, and in user requirements have led RLG to redesign its communications network. The goals, topology, hardware, software and protocols, deployment, and related matters are discussed. Sidebars address current RLIN communications technology and the integrated RLIN network.

RLG has used METS for a particular application, that is as a wrapper for structural metadata. When RLG cultural materials was launched, there was no single way to deal with “complex digital objects”. METS provides a standard means of encoding metadata regarding the digital objects represented in RCM, and METS has now been fully integrated into the workflow for this service.

In the fall of 1982 the RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network) computer system, which serves the Research Libraries Group (RLG) incorporated a new interlibrary loan subsystem which has the potential to facilitate fast and efficient interlibrary loans among members of RLG. At present, RLG consists of 24 general or fully participating members — all of which are major research libraries including the New York Public Library — and 13 special libraries such as the Museum of Modern Art. As one of its primary functions, RLG maintains a benignly liberal interlibrary loan policy for general member institutions. Not only will these members lend the same materials as they circulate to their own patrons; in many cases such normally forbidden interlibrary loan items as rare books and reference books may be lent (providing of course the lender is agreeable). And, of special importance to library patrons, photocopying, in most cases, is provided free of charge as long as the request is reasonable and within copyright restrictions. It must be stressed however that each member library is still responsible for maintaining a collection commensurate with the needs of its patrons. Thus, RLG is not meant to be a substitute for collection development of any member institution but rather to expand the availability of materials to libraries within the system.

A unified database to record all printing of the hand press period in Europe (from the beginning of printing until 1830) is being developed by the Consortium of European Research Libraries. The problems encountered in designing this multi‐file, multinational and multilingual database and the solutions adopted, in using the Research Libraries Information Network, are described. Future plans to include relevant holdings from many of Europe’s national library collections are outlined.

Library planning and collection building in the research libraries of the United States have long had to deal with two contradictory forces, autonomy and interdependence. The independence and autonomy of those libraries in providing for local self‐sufficiency in information needs have been tested by a gradual but growing realization that local self‐sufficiency is not possible for the programs of comprehensive university libraries or other large libraries. They continue to operate independently, making their own decisions for local needs, while routinely rejecting the “myth of the self‐sufficient library” and paying lip‐service to cooperation and resource sharing.