ABSTRACT
Our profession moves forward first by its leaders having a vision of what can be, then by the testing and striving to create that vision, and finally by several steps backwards as reality adjusts what was foreseen. Always though the target is before us, and our ultimate achievement is that goal. From the beginning of the networking movement in this country, research librarians have had an important role to play. Because of their size, the resources to be brought to bear, and the expected research orientation of the librarians, research libraries have been prime movers in advancing the profession toward networking and resource sharing. Although their holdings are the richest and most varied, so are their demands most varied and immediate. The confluence of technology and the recognition by research libraries that no one library can hope to own the resources needed for modern research have been the genuses of networking.
