At the time of CNI's founding, most Internet backbone speeds were T1 or slower and there was little scholarly publishing, library or government information on the Internet. Although computational scientists used the Internet for supercomputer access and visualization, the predominant academic application was electronic mail. The public was generally unaware of the Internet's existence.

1990

• CNI is founded by the library and IT Communities to "enhance scholarship and intellectual productivity."

• Paul Evan Peters is named the first Executive Director. The initial Steering Committee is chaired by Richard P. West and includes Bill Arms, Carole Barone, Susan Brynteson, Nancy Cline, Robert Heterick, Ronald Larsen, Tom West, Jerome Yavarkovsky, Kenneth King, Jane Ryland, and Duane Webster.

• At the end of its first year, CNI has 118 member institutions, more than double the number anticipated in the original business plan.

1991

• CNI begins work on the economics of information in the electronic environment, and through development of an agenda for pricing information, helps to shape the subsequent marketplace in networked scholarly information.

• The Rights for Electronic Access and Delivery of Information (READI) project brings together owners, users, and intermediaries of networked content to discuss the kinds of licenses, contracts, and other agreements that will help make a market for scholarly networked information.

• The Elsevier TULIP Project is launched through collaborations at a CNI Task Force Meeting. The Project is one of the earliest examples of instrumented large-scale experiments in electronic journal delivery.

1992

• At a CNI Task Force Meeting Brewster Kahle introduces Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), a network information retrieval service, and Mark McCahill introduces Gopher, a guide to finding and retrieving directories of information on the Internet.

• CNI convenes a meeting to discuss Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Meeting participants Virgnia Tech and UMI both establish major programs for the digital capture and dissemination of theses and dissertations.

• A group sponsored by CNI and led by the University of California establishes the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed. Their work paves the way for large-scale deployment of Z39.50 in library automation applications.

• CNI-Announce, a listserv on organizational activities and networking policy developments, is launched.

1993

• Through the University Presses in the Networked information Environment Project, CNI introduces university presses to the opportunities provided by Internet publishing.

• CNI launches its first intiative in federal information, the Access to Public Information Program. The Clinton administration implements many of the program recommendations.

1994

• NCSA's Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, is introduced to CNI members at a Task Force meeting. Mosaic becomes the "killer app" that opens the web to broad use.

• The Cost Centers and Measures in the Networked Information Value Chain Project is initiated with support from the Council on Library Resources.

• The Getty Art History Information Institute, the American Council of Learned Societies, and CNI issue a report calling for increased representation of the arts and humanities on the Internet: Humanities and Arts on the Information Superhighway.

• CNI issues a report, Electronic Billboards on the Digital Superhighway, which argues for advertising as a means of supporting Internet publications. (Advertising had been prohibited by acceptable use policies when the Internet was largely government-funded.)

• CNI holds its first Working Together Workshop, to help teams of librarians and information technologists increase the effectiveness of their collaborations.

• At its first New Learning Communities Conference CNI brings together pioneering institutional teams developing new learning communities through the integration of networking and networked information in higher education teaching and learning environments.

1995

• At a Task Force Meeting, CNI highlights the first Digital Libraries Research Initiative sponsored by NSF, DARPA, and NASA.

• CNI releases its White Paper on Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval, which identifies architectures, technologies, and metadata needed to support discovery and retrieval of information on the network.

• CNI begins support of the Dublin Core Workshops.

• Science fiction author Daniel Keys Moran presents his views on the future of the networked environment at a CNI Task Force Meeting.

• The Elsevier TULIP Project concludes with the publication of several major reports emphasizing the costs of local mounting of electronic journals and helps contribute to the shift to licensed access to centralized network services for this kind of content.

1996

• The National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) is founded as a project of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Getty Information Institute, and CNI to encourage the development of the National Information Infrastructure as a means to preserve, access, and creatively build upon our cultural legacy.

• CNI co-sponsors a conference, Networked Information in an International Context, with the UK Joint Information Systems Committee, the British Library, and CAUSE.

• CNI publishes the pioneering study, Assessing the Academic Networked Environment: Strategies and Options, and begins a project involving institutional testing of networking and networked information measures.

• CNI co-sponsors the First ACM International Conference on Research and Development in Digital Libraries

• The Internet 2 Project is launched. CNI is represented on the Applications Council and works closely with this effort to help identify advanced networking applications.

• Paul Evan Peters, the first Executive Director of CNI, dies on November 18, 1996. Joan K. Lippincott becomes Interim Executive Director.

1997

• Clifford A. Lynch is named the second Executive Director of CNI in July 1997.

• CNI's Institution-Wide Information Strategies (IWIS) project is launched to assist the higher education community in understanding, describing, and promoting institution-wide strategies for networked information resource and service development.

• As a continuation of its focus on federal information, CNI issues its White Paper on Access to and Services for Federal Information in the Networked Environment

1998

• CNI releases its White Paper on Authentication and Access Management Issues in Cross-Organizational Use of Networked Information Resources. The paper identifies issues, maps best practices, provides a common vocabulary and framework, and lays the foundation for follow-on activities in this area.

• CNI offers Working Together Workshops with a new focus on assisting institutional teams in improving access to electronic archives and records through collaboration.

• The journal Information Technology and Libraries publishes a special issue on CNI, highlighting projects that focus on institutional and professional transformation.

• CNI co-sponsors Project Issac, developed by the NSF-funded Internet Scout Project, to link collections of high-quality Internet resources.

• Two of CNI's original sponsoring associations, Educom and CAUSE, create a new association, EDUCAUSE, to address information technology in higher education.

1999

• CNI works with Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and others on developing a strategy for archiving electronic scholarly journals. CNI hosts an invitational conference on the organizational aspects of this issue and continues to pursue an agenda in this arena.

• CNI co-sponsors a conference, New Challenges for Scholarly Communication in the Digital Era: Changing Roles and Expectations in the Academic Community, organized by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).

• CNI co-sponsors Institutional Opportunities for Advanced Networking, a workshop of the EDUCAUSE Net@EDU program.

• Executive Director Clifford Lynch serves on the National Research Council Committee on Intellectual Property in the Emerging Information Infrastructure, which releases the report, The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property and the Emerging Information Infrastructure.

• CNI ends its first decade with 207 institutional members.

2000