Consisting of the Big Ten schools plus the University of Chicago, this consortium has a tradition of collaborative projects. Many of these have involved electronic reference resources and journals, such as consortia licenses for Beilstein Commander and ISI s Web of Science . The CIC also sponsors subject-specific selector groups. Many of the electronic initiatives undertaken by the CIC originated within these groups. By utilizing the Z39.50 standard, patrons can search the online catalogs of all CIC schools at one time using a common searching interface.
Authorized users can then borrow materials online from any of the participating institutions.
Because some of the indexing and abstracting sources to which these institutions subscribe are also searchable using Z39.50 compatible software, the VEL also permits searching across these databases as well. RLG has long been active in collaborative collection development projects and is responsible for the RLIN database.