In the summer of 1994, Stephen Portch, the new chancellor of the University System of Georgia (USG), issued a call for projects that would benefit all 34 public colleges and universities (see figure 1). For the past several years, a subcommittee of library directors in the University System had been meeting regularly with representatives of the vice chancellor for information and instructional technology (IIT) to discuss possible electronic library proposals and sharing the results of these meeting with all library directors in the system through the Regents Academic Committee on Libraries (RACL). Thus, when the chancellor requested proposals, there was already a consensus on the services and features that were most desirable for the University System libraries.