ABSTRACT
For the purposes of this discussion, I will define networks as those organizations whose primary activity is to provide electronic bibliographic information to libraries, either directly or by contract with another organization. Automated library networks were nonexistent in the 1960s: with the pressure upon OCLC to provide services outside the state of Ohio in the 1970s, the OCLC management made a decision which has had enormous ramifications upon libraries and the way they operate. OCLC said that it could not serve individual libraries outside Ohio, but it would be willing to work with groups of libraries. The networks were in a large part established as a result of this decision, although many cooperatives pre-existed. Some of these changed their modus operandi to include contracting for OCLC services.
