Courting discovery: Managing transition to the virtual library

Since the mid'1980s, a primary objective of the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Libraries has been to build a state‐of‐the‐art electronic library. This early development was known as the Mercury Project. A new effort is underway at the CMU Libraries to move beyond Mercury to a new virtual library infrastructure. The virtual library will become reality when users can access digitized information as easily as they can access television. A distributed computing environment is already in place at CMU; this distributed architecture allows the CMU Libraries to engage in the improvement of productivity for the campus community by making access to information more efficient. A primary focus has been to be a pioneer in creating and providing services not readily available from vendors.