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These papers represent the proceedings of the February 1977 ISAD institute on the topic of a national bibliographic network.
In the late 1960s the application of data processing technology to library functions was for the most part an amateur, hesitant effort. It was viewed as an interesting experiment that at some time in the undefined future might perhaps bear fruit. As late as 1971 the major issue was Ellsworth Mason's skepticism that automation could prove viable in a library context. Ironically enough, at the same time, two developments were coming to fruition that would ensure the success of the rites of passage from promising puberty to virile adulthood for library automation. These were, of course, the successful initiation of the MARC distribution service from the Library of Congress and the inauguration of shared cataloging services by the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC).
It need only be recalled how hesitant and full of doubt were the steps being taken in the late 1960s in applying computer technology to appreciate the boldness of the steps taken by Fred Kilgour and the OCLC. They developed not just another automated system but one based on the most sophisticated form of that technology--an online, interactive, teleprocessing system initially serving some fifty Ohio libraries. In the intervening five years, OCLC has expanded from fifty libraries to some 1,20D and now supports approximately 1,600 terminals. The unquestioned success of OCLC has dramatically served to extinguish any doubt regarding the economic viability of automated library systems. If it has crystallized any doubts, these are with respect to the viability of systems conceived on any substantially smaller scale. The nontechnically related doubts still linger. Several observers have expressed concern over the direction developments such as OCLC are taking as related to bibliographic control in the United States.
But this is not meant to be a panegyric for, nor a damnation of, the accomplishments of the OCLC. It is only meant to illustrate the rate of development that we have witnessed in this most recent decade and to note that further developments can be expected to be more rapid and that perhaps their consequences will be less discernible, or benign. As further perspective: these papers represent the third ISAD institute on networks and networking. As...