The Research Libraries Group (RLG) was a U.S.-based library consortium. They developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliographic descriptions, and ArchiveGrid, a database containing descriptions of archival collections. RLG was founded by a group of major research libraries in 1974, two years after OCLC, another library consortium, was founded. A major reason for RLG’s establishment was dissatisfaction among research institutions with OCLC’s record keeping.
The Research Libraries Group's conspectus is still posted at the Library of Congress. This is a helpful scale for judging an academic collection's depth.
The founding libraries were New York Public Library and the university libraries of Columbia, Harvard and Yale. RLG moved its offices to Stanford University in 1978 and adopted Stanford Library’s BALLOTS computerized processing system. This system evolved into the online database, RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network). RLIN was generally only for use by library specialists. In 1993 RLG developed Eureka as a user-friendly interface for use by non-librarians. RLG expanded its membership to other research libraries throughout the U.S. and in 1992 the British Library became the first non-North American member.
In June 2006, RLG merged with OCLC. Its catalog became part of OCLC's WorldCat. Its current programs joined with OCLC Research to become OCLC Programs and Research. Eureka databases were migrated to OCLC's FirstSearch service. The office was relocated from Mountain View, California to San Mateo, California.
Famous quotes containing the words research, libraries and/or group:
“The great question that has never been answered and which I have not get been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What does a women want?””
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“To me, nothing can be more important than giving children books, It’s better to be giving books to children than drug treatment to them when they’re 15 years old. Did it ever occur to anyone that if you put nice libraries in public schools you wouldn’t have to put them in prisons?”
—Fran Lebowitz (20th century)
“Jury—A group of twelve men who, having lied to the judge about their hearing, health, and business engagements, have failed to fool him.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)