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The Joint Academic NETwork (JANET) was established in 1984 by the Computer Board for Universities and Research Councils and is now funded by its successor, the Information Services Committee (ISC) of the Universities Funding Council. JANET links users to the facilities of over 2000 registered computers on more than 200 sites within the U.K. All universities, polytechnics and the institutes funded by the various Research Councils are connected, as are many educational institutions. There is also a growing number of industrial and commercial organizations connected, all working in collaboration with members of the academic community. The Computer Board has always insisted on the need for rationalization in centrally funded academic computing and on the use of a standardized set of protocols on mainframe computers purchased with their money. As Mike Wells, the first Director of Networking wrote in 1988 "JANET is not the largest network in the world. JANET is not the most reliable network in the world; but JANET is almost certainly the most heterogeneous network using a single set of commonly adopted standards and integrating a large number of local area networks, in the world".[1]

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The International Association of Technological University Libraries (IATUL) 1 was founded in Europe in 1955 and from small beginnings has grown to almost 250 members from 45 countries. It is a vibrant and growing association which provides a network of international contacts for the directors of libraries in technological universities.IATUL four membership categories:• Ordinary Membership, which is available to institutions that provide courses in science, technology or engineering to at least Masters level.• Associate Membership is available to organisations that want to be associated with IATUL, such as national libraries.• Honorary Membership is for retired members who have provided significant services to the association, usually as a member of the Board.• Sustaining Membership is for commercial organisations that wish to be members of IATUL and attend the annual conferences.IATUL is managed by a Board, all of whom are voluntary and are library directors from eight countries. There is some paid support which includes the development and management of the IATUL web site (www.iatul.org) and this is based in the Library of the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Because of this mainly voluntary effort, IATUL has a low subscription rate of US$100 per year, which means that we have many members from central and eastern Europe. Our subscriptions are managed by the Library of the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.IATUL is an active association which encourages communications and networking between its members and has an active a mailing list which connects all members. This leads to discussions between the membership and requests for information, together with regular communication from the Board to the membership on issues of interest.

The University Library at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) currently manages several collections with different automated systems. These collections include the bibliographic collections of libraries, the Digital Library (which includes commercial products, such as books, journals and databases) and the documents generated by the University (such as dissertations, teaching materials, research results, projects by students, digital videos, etc.). The production processes of the digital materials that are generated by the University, which are highly specific and complex, follow an established workflow that traditional management systems are unprepared for. Increasingly, the University requests the Library to actively participate not only in the management of the final documents (within the library) but also during the entire life cycle of the documents generated. We should keep in mind that digital documentation has its own specific publication and editing requirements, which are sometimes very sophsticated, and therefore the management of different kinds of materials with one overall system is difficult. The University Library has developed different systems to suit the characteristics of each collection, which has also spawned different support products that meet specific needs to be developed for the management of these collections. These products are therefore very efficient; however, they have led to a disparity in the procedures for document retrieval and, furthermore, the system’s development and maintenance has become very expensive. aced with this situation, the University Library is analysing the advantages and disadvantages of using a unique management system or, alternatively, of continuing to employ different systems, as the previous stage to the design of a new strategy for the management of university production.