Since the 1960s, libraries in the U.S. have evolved from largely paper-
based libraries, to automated libraries, and more recently to networked and
electronic libraries. In the 1990s, printed materials will still provide the
core of all major libraries, but increasingly libraries will move toward
networked-electronic-virtual libraries by employing the advanced information
technologies. These libraries will enable their users to have online access to
unlimited information resources, many in electronic format, anywhere in the
world.
This paper describes the development of the networked, electronic and virtual
library in the U.S. using the examples of OCLC and OhioLINK, in which the author
has been directly involved. Established in 1967, OCLC was transformed from an
academic library network in Ohio to an international Online Computer Library
Center with growing numbers of members in all of the 50 states in U.S. and some
40 other countries. OhioLINK is the latest adventure of major academic libraries
in Ohio to apply new information technologies for effective library networking
and resource sharing both as a complement to and further expansion of OCLC.