The Network Library System: The History and Description of an Evolving Library‐Developed System
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb047680 |
| Pages | 67-76 |
| Published date | 01 January 1987 |
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
| Author | Donna M. Senzig,Franklyn F. Bright |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The Network Library System:
The History and Description of an
Evolving Library-Developed System
Donna M. Senzig and Franklyn F. Bright
The Network Library System (NLS) is a
collaborative development project
undertaken by the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Libraries and the
University of Chicago Libraries.
Efforts to develop the system began
in the 1970s. The conceptualization
of the system, cooperative efforts
to develop the system, and subsequent
changes to the system due to such
factors as the appearance on the market
of alternative systems, are described.
Current plans, which call for the
linking of the NOTIS system with
components of the NLS system, are
covered in a sidebar at the end
of the article.
The Network Library System (NLS) is a col-
laborative development project undertaken by the
University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries and the
University of Chicago Libraries, with support from
IBM. Its purpose is to design and develop an in-
tegrated library system that could serve a single
large research library, a multi-branch research
library, or a multi-campus university library system.
The technical architecture provides for a distributed
computer environment. Circulation and online catalog
modules have been developed to demonstrate this
design.
BACKGROUND
It is hard to imagine two more unlikely col-
laborators than the University of Chicago and the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. The University
of Chicago is a private school with a large, central-
ized collection and a long, successful record in
library automation. The LDMS, which that institution
developed, is one of the earliest, most successful,
and most long-lived automated cataloging systems.
UW-Madison is a state-supported university with
a large, decentralized library system comprising
over twenty collections cataloged by several different
libraries. The only automated systems in operation
before the Network Library System project was
undertaken were a reserve-book acquisitions, catalog-
ing, and circulation system developed for punched-
card technology, and a database that was used
only to print a serials catalog.
In spite of these differences, by the second
half of the 1970s, Chicago and Madison found that
they were in a very similar situation. Conversa-
ISSUE 17 67
Senzig is the Director of the College Library
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Bright
is the Associate Director of the General Library
System at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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