NELINET

NELINET, Inc. was (see Lyrasis) the not-for-profit membership cooperative of academic, public, school and special libraries and other information and cultural organizations in New England in the United States (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont). It was formed as a program of the New England Board of Higher Education in 1966, and became independently incorporated in 1979.

NELINET's primary services included member education, technical and general support, and consulting. NELINET was also a regional service provider for OCLC. In addition, NELINET provided regional resources, such as New England Regional Depository, the New England Collections Online, the NELINET Technology Sandbox, and TrendGauge (an information awareness blogging service).

Another activity was to act as a cooperative purchasing agent for electronic resources such as an academic databases, online journals and e-Books. Since it has over 600 member libraries, and since they include many of the strongest academic library programs in the United States, the combined buying power is very great, and they are one of the major economic forces in academic publishing.

The mission of NELINET was to collaborate with its member libraries, and with other regional, national and international partners, to create opportunities for connections, collaboration, and cooperation among members to shape the future of New England libraries, museums, historical societies, and other related information organizations in the evolving information environment. NELINET was a multitype library cooperative, including academic, public, school, corporate, and special (including medical, law, and theological). The governing Board of Directors was elected by and from the membership.

Nelinet also sponsored a very well attended IT conference annually in the New England area, sponsoring topics of general IT interest to libraries. Topics included library-related items, such as open source projects, with leaders in the fields giving presentations.

NELINET was based in Southborough, MA, (a suburb of Boston).

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