The web lets Internet users receive complex hypertext documents that can include text, images, digitized sound, as well as hypertext links to other documents at the same site or at other sites around the world. Although originally designed to help nuclear physicists at far-flung institutions work together on collaborative projects, the web has quickly become a popular forum for information exchange. The hypertext features of many web clients make these connections both immediate and intuitive. At present, RLG's server contains information about RLG membership and descriptions of RLG databases such as the RLIN bibliographic file and the CitaDel article-citation and document delivery service. This allows users take a virtual tour of institutions from Texas to Scotland, jumping from one to the other in the time it takes to click a mouse-button.
Recent additions highlight the breadth of the web's potential.
Others enable Ariel users to search for the names and IP addresses of other sites using RLG's Ariel document transmission software.