ABSTRACT
No individual library can expect to be comprehensive in its coverage of the world's knowledge. ARL libraries recognize the importance of further cooperative activity and the new roles of research libraries in a global context. "Opportunities for sharing research information internationally will become increasingly compelling as more information becomes available in machine-readable form and links to networks on other continents multiply."1 Yet a host of issues, from the conceptual to the practical, must be resolved before the vision can prevail. An ongoing challenge is to rethink research library roles and relationships in providing access to foreign materials within a cooper-
ative framework. Further, ARL libraries must articulate these changing roles and relationships to their parent institutions, to gain both their understanding of the problem and their financial support.
