As the twentieth century came to a close the phenomenal growth of information technology applications seemed limitless. University libraries, like all sectors of the new information economy, experienced tremendous growth in the number of scholarly digital resources that could be made available to students, faculty, and staff of their research communities. As late as 1994, a well-funded research library of average size might have had no more than four or five electronic bibliographic databases that could be directly used by the campus community. There were still vast realms of information available through such information providers as Dialog, Dow-Jones News Retrieval, and Lexis-Nexis but these services were expensive and generally required the mediation of an expert searcher. These new tools, often CD-ROM databases networked through a "juke-box" application, were the first that searchers could use directly with little intervention from library reference desk staff. Some training or other basic orientation was often needed but once some familiarity was attained the basic information-seeking dynamic began to change.

Despite these foundational changes, few librarians, even those intimately involved with developing information technology, could have foreseen the tremendous changes that the growth of the Internet and the success of the World Wide Web browser would bring to all libraries, not just those in the university research community. The moderately well funded university library of 1994 with four or five bibliographic databases was, by 1997, offering a hundred or more bibliographic, and occasionally even full-text, databases. Added to this mix were a growing number of full-text electronic journals. Some journals were new scholarly publications created to take advantage of the new digital publishing opportunities and others were well-established print journals now also offering their contents in electronic form. Libraries were also forced to take notice of the ever-growing world of "Internet resources." Many professional organizations and even individuals created web sites with pages of information that had value for scholarly research. These sites, especially in the early days of the web, were often free of charge and libraries were faced with a new conundrum of inventing ways to point students and faculty to valuable, but off-site, resources. Organizations and individuals creating web sites that were erroneous and prejudicial to the research process compounded this problem.

Another aspect of the social and technological problem facing libraries was the growth of network access. As the ability to dial in to university computer networks expanded, more students and faculty members were able to conduct some aspects of their research from home. The traditional ability of reference librarians to answer questions and assist in the research process was being eroded by this new mode of network research. It is the influence of this new environment that stimulated university libraries to begin a critical examination of the idea and purpose of the library web page.

As the number of resources that could be delivered from a library web page grew, libraries were forced to address the question of defining the purpose of a web presence. Many library web sites grew quickly as new sources of digital information became available. But as screen real estate was limited, the question of what types of information had priority was also debated. As more bibliographic and full-text information was added to library web pages, it became apparent that the library web page was now the essential starting point for beginning any research project. Instead of using a web page to point out the resources, the web page was used to directly access the resources.

The typical university library web page in 1996 reflects how libraries first began to use the Web to arrange networked information. Through the work of the Internet Archive Project, which collects and saves web pages, it is possible to inspect examples of how university research libraries first conceived of a web presence. Libraries were pointing to information about the libraries, as well as a small selection of library databases, catalogs, and other resources. The information was presented in a linear fashion -- the ubiquitous images, frames, and mouse-overs of today are absent. Yet common to all is an attempt to select the most relevant information for a diverse community and present it in this new medium.

As the implications of this new and emerging environment began to be more fully understood, many libraries looked to the dynamics of the emerging commercial Internet for ideas. There were two commercial applications that caught the attention of innovative university libraries. The first Internet trend to affect the organizational structure of the library web was the concept of a gateway. The reasoning behind a gateway was that if an Internet host was to centrally locate a selection of the most popular web sites on its home page, they would draw regular users back to their site. At this time the possibility of generating revenue was not clearly understood and the idea of generating repeat visits from a loyal group seemed to be a good method of guaranteeing traffic flows. These first commercial gateways would gather together a collection of general-purpose Internet resources. These would often include a newswire, a link to the National Weather Service, sports scores; movie reviews, horoscopes and financial information such as a time-delayed stock quote service. Such collections could be as broad or as deep as the gateway designers wished to include.

As more and more web sites offered some degree of personalization and customization options, the idea of the gateway began to be challenged by the idea of the portal. In the beginning many people considered a portal as a term synonymous with gateway, an anchor site or major starting point. As the implications of portals with personalization and customization options began to disseminate in the Internet community, innovative libraries saw this as a second opportunity to control the growing number of available scholarly resources while, at the same time, providing patrons with a measure of personal control. Portals and gateways began to evolve in somewhat different directions.

One advantage that a personalized library portal has over a gateway is that by allowing patrons to identify their research interests a library can "push" a selection of recommended databases, electronic journals, Internet resources, journal table of contents, and new monographs to those who identify with a particular discipline. Internet history is often vague but three of the first university libraries to provide portals were Cornell, North Carolina State, and the University of Washington. For Cornell and Washington the portal was an outgrowth of earlier work developing a library gateway. At NCSU the goal was to discover a method of improving on an ever-expanding web site.

In early summer of 1997 the newly formed Digital Library Initiatives Department (DLI) of the NCSU Libraries was charged with the development and administration of the annual user survey. For 1997/98, the area of electronic resources and services was selected as the second topic in a systematic program of user surveys. Over the last decade, library expenditures for electronic resources and computing equipment had increased dramatically, and the library had introduced new services and staff to serve users' information needs. As new information technologies permeated teaching and learning activities, library resources were stretched thin in an effort to meet the emerging demands of the digital environment while continuing to support user needs for print collections.

With the help of tuition increase monies starting in 1996/97, the NCSU Libraries was able to make a commitment to expand its collections further and to establish the "digital library." Library administration recognized the importance of ensuring that library expenditures truly address user needs and of determining those needs in the rapidly changing digital environment.

While the general topic of this survey was digital resources, the specific mission was to determine what users required in the area of digital resources and services, how well the Libraries were meeting their needs, and what might be changed to better meet those needs. The survey took the form of focus group discussions, the results of which were equally distributed between comments expected and unexpected. One interesting discovery from the focus groups was that many members of the university community, while happy with the digital largesse manifested in the increasing number of databases and electronic journals, were also concerned about their ability to assimilate and manage this electronic bounty. Many participants in the focus groups looked to the Libraries to provide guidance in managing an environment that was rapidly threatening to become information overload.

What was to become MyLibrary@NCState had its genesis in conversations regarding a possible application to the spring 1998 National Science Foundation digital library grant program. During the first meeting of the DLI, on January 16, 1998, the idea of applying autonomous agents and intelligent profiling to build a personal library information manager was discussed. Such a tool could allow members of the campus community to individually define for themselves which of the many available library resources were most important to them. At the time of this meeting new Internet personalization services such as MyYahoo or MyExcite had recently become available. It was clear the digital resources and services of the Libraries were obvious candidates for personalization and customization options. Other research projects such as Firefly and Leitizia at MIT and Informant at Dartmouth also suggested relevant design considerations for a similar model.

During this initial meeting two essential factors were considered. First, what was the most important issue that such a project could address? Brainstorming this idea resulted in an agreement that the Libraries should explore the idea of how to develop the capability to organize, assemble, and present to the user a "customized library" reflecting his/her major interests and needs, an attractive and intuitive listing of or gateway to multi-format information resources and services. This "virtual" library environment could be further customized and enhanced over time in order to link to search results or personal references, add/remove/change appearance of resources, or document successful search strategies.

The second factor discussed was what might be the "core innovative idea" that distinguished this project from others, current and previous. Meeting participants concluded that this core idea should focus on enabling the library user or information seeker from their perspective; moving beyond a primarily "computing-oriented" approach to defining and demonstrating the concept of a digital library. Building a digital library inhabited by people: recognizing the "human element" and bringing users and librarians closer together through common conceptual models and the use of technology for real-time collaboration/consultation.

Although it was decided not to pursue the NSF grant at that time, DLI took those initial ideas and in a short span of time developed a basic model for such a service. Not all of the ideas generated at these initial meetings could be initially incorporated but a foundation for further development was established. All facets of this first model were examined and a number of features and improvements were integrated. Once the working model was completed, DLI made appointments with a number of librarians from various departments to inspect the model and comment on the idea. Nineteen librarians, including five department heads, were shown the model in a span of about three weeks and their comments and suggestions formed the basis for an improved model.

The MyLibrary model was an attempt to provide a solution to the critical problem of information overload. Although the model presented a small step in technology development it was intended to offer a quantum leap in service and institutional recognition. The library at NC State, like other university research libraries, is the central storehouse of information, and user surveys at that time showed an unceasing demand from users for more, not less, information. However, the more databases licensed, the more monographs purchased, and the more serial runs increase, the more incumbent it becomes to provide information access shortcuts and strategies. User surveys and focus groups underscore this need by revealing a growing frustration with access to information at the same time that more information is requested and needed.

Initial discussions conducted by DLI with library staff found a clear recognition that the MyLibrary model deserved further exploration. However, there were significant questions to answer, including scalability, profile enhancements, improved user interface, administration and maintenance, infrastructure integrity, documentation, and other issues. The immediate challenge was to form a project team that could build on and improve the model as it now stood. It was clearly recognized that this model, and the service it would generate, had the potential to impact the work of nearly all library departments, and that representation at design phase was essential to success. As a result the MyLibrary Development Team was formed in late 1998 to refine and expand the initial project model. This team included representatives from other departments within the Libraries, ensuring that other constituencies had an immediate voice in project development.

The essential idea behind MyLibrary@NCState was that using any Web browser, NC State faculty, students, and staff could create a personalized profile based on specific academic disciplines. After the subscriber made a series of discipline-related selections, MyLibrary@NCState built a customizable interface to the library's resources for the subscriber. These resources included links to electronic journals, citation databases, direct access to common search engines, and discipline-specific Internet resources. After the initial page was generated, other links could be added to or subtracted from the preconfigured list of recommendations to create an individualized "digital library." For example, a subscriber might select among the system's many "customize" hotlinks to display the list of disciplines. Each discipline list is associated with information resources (journals, databases, Internet resources, etc.) specific to that field. Resources from any discipline could be chosen for inclusion in the subscriber's personalized digital library, which appears in a Web browser after the selections are submitted. The next time a subscriber visited MyLibrary@NCState, the system remembered all customizations and listed them accordingly.

MyLibrary@NCState had four features that made it much more than a simple bookmark manager. Current Awareness was a service allowing subscribers to receive and search on a regular basis lists of new books that had been added to the library's collection. Using Library of Congress classification numbers subscribers could create any number of current awareness profiles. The MyLibrary@NCState system saved these profiles and regularly searched its database for them. Search results were sent to a subscriber's e-mail address, clickable URLs within the message allowed direct access to the library's catalog and to more information describing the book.

Based on the selected discipline, the system also displayed the name and contact information for the appropriate collection manager and reference librarians who specialize in that subject area. More than one librarian could be listed, depending on the disciplines selected. From the focus groups it was learned that, although digital libraries are desirable, users want direct access to librarians as well.

Students and faculty or administrative staff do not always have time to search for new and better information resources. MyLibrary@NCState assisted in this area with another section called "Message from the Librarian." This section--updated regularly by the appropriate librarians--announced, suggested, and helped subscribers keep abreast of interesting information developments in their selected disciplines.

Finally, unlike bookmark managers, MyLibrary@NCState was portable and required only a Web browser and Internet access. Because admittance to the system's database is keyed to NC State's registered user identification accounts, valid subscribers can reach MyLibrary@NCState from nearly any Web browser in the world, whether their computers are in offices, homes, or even the library. Conversely, bookmark managers or locally defined sets of bookmarks are bound to a particular machine or computing system.

In June of 1999, the Director's Council of the NCSU Libraries created a standing management committee to guide MyLibrary@NCState from its development phase into life as a production service. Provision for knowledge transfer between the project development team and this new committee took the form of two members of the former serving in an ex officio capacity on the latter and a chairperson intimate with the details of MyLibrary@NCState's nativity and infancy. The roster of departments represented on the management committee included Systems, Cataloging, Collection Management, Research and Information Services (RISD), and Digital Library Initiatives.

A charge statement was provided to the management committee, a map to guide its weekly meetings. This statement comprised eight mandates:

Following the release of the first version of MyLibrary@NCState the concept generated an ever-increasing amount of interest at both the campus, national, and international level. In 1999 MyLibrary@NCState was named one of the top technology trends by the Library and Information Technology Association and presentations by DLI staff at CNI, the LITA National Forum, and ASIS spawned more interest. From the beginning of the design process DLI staff held to the idea that it would best for this service if it could be shared with other university libraries. Indeed, every presentation generated queries; both in person and in follow up e-mail, as to whether DLI would be sharing the code. As these queries were examined, a plan began to be formulated that would allow the enhancement of MyLibrary@NCState development in a collaborative environment while at the same time sharing the code with those libraries interested in having it.

On February 18, 2000 e-mail messages were sent to all of the people who had inquired as to obtaining the source code. This was followed by a second general notice to a number of listservs. In less than two months the source code was downloaded approximately 300 times, 106 people subscribed to the mailing list and nearly a dozen people began participating in the co-development work. This initial shared development process was fruitful, with a number of patches and new approaches integrated into the MyLibrary model.

This brief history of the development of MyLibrary@NCState is just the first chapter in the continuing story of the "MyLibrary" model. As this volume illustrates, development continues with an even higher range of functionalities, greater reliability, and a ever-growing community of investigators and developers. It was not a fanciful dream in 1998 to assert the tremendous value of such a tool as MyLibrary to the NC State community, today it is an equally valid claim applicable to a worldwide community. In concluding one report on the NC State service in 2000, two members of the team noted that it was needful "to emphasize the fact that development and deployment of such a service is resource intensive --particularly vis-a-vis staff time." That is no less true today; however, the continuing development of the MyLibrary portal and its ever more refined feature set, as documented in this book, are the specific results of that inquiry begun in 1998.

This essay builds on two previously published articles: "My Gateway: Personal Library Portals." by Keith Morgan in The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science 2nd Edition, Marcel Dekker Inc. 2002; and "Pioneering Portals: MyLibrary@NCState" 198 by Keith Morgan and Tripp Reade in Information Technology and Libraries, 19:4 (Dec. 2000), pp.191-198.