The National Research Libraries Alliance (NRLA) (often pronounced NAR-la) was formed in 1997 by four US Government research libraries in order to "provide their research communities with a common core of scientific information." To this end, the libraries of the
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...
,
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...
(NIST),
National Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
(NSF), and
Naval Research Laboratory
The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...
(NRL) sought and licensed consortium use of Science Citation Index Expanded via Web of Science, produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).
As new members joined, the NRLA expanded its goals in order:
1. To broker the best prices for products and services for NRLA members and to allow members a better return on investment.
2. To improve information services and support through increased resource sharing among NRLA libraries.
3. To ensure that all NRLA members have seamless and timely access to procured information resources and services regardless of their geographic location.
4. To develop and maintain the necessary technical and administrative infrastructure for improved and timely access to NRLA resources.
5. To promote, through innovative leadership, creative approaches to acquiring and sharing information products and services among NRLA libraries.
The core of shared scientific information for NRLA remains the TORPEDO ''Ultra'' digital library system of millions of licensed journal and conference articles hosted at NRL.
References
"The National Research Library Alliance: A Federal Consortium Formed to Provide Inter-Agency Access to Scientific Information."Authors: Stackpole, Laurie E., Atkinson, Roderick D. ''Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship,'' Spring 1998
"Electronic Journals as a Component of the Digital Library."Authors: Stackpole, Laurie E., King, Richard James ''Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship,'' Spring 1999
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Library consortia in the United States
Research libraries in the United States