An important precursor of eLib was the UK Higher Education Libraries Review. This was set up by the Higher Education Funding Councils (HEFCs, which fund universities in the UK) to look into the needs of libraries across the sector. It followed major changes which occurred in the late 1980s, notably the doubling of the number of universities through re-classification of tertiary level but largely teaching institutions. The Review, chaired by Professor Brian Follett, reported in 1993 [3]; the report was one of the most influential of recent times and resulted in several initiatives, large and small, unlocking significant spending (totaling more than £100 million).

Chapter 7 of the Follett report related to the implications of information technology in improving operations and capabilities of over-stretched libraries. The original eLib program grew out of the effort to implement that Chapter 7, and needs to be understood in that context. The program did not, in itself, attempt to create the electronic library, or even to project a particularly coherent view of such an endeavour. Instead, it aimed to address a number of important possibilities which had been identified in the review process. Some 5 years later, although our understanding has moved on in many ways, several of those early projects have still a few months to run. It takes a long time to get big programs rolling.