This report describes a pilot project to develop a Cooperative System for Public Library Data Collection, which would enable the Center for Education Statistics (CES) of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement to issue national statistical reports on public libraries by using data collected by state library agencies in their annual surveys. Begun in 1985, the pilot project was an attempt to start the cooperative system by working with a small number of states. Twenty states initially responded to a letter sent to the chief officer in each state library agency explaining the project and inviting participation. Of these, 17 worked actively with the project for many months, and 15 were committed to sending data in 1986; 13 other states have expressed an interest in joining the system in the future. All states are sending data in IBM compatible, machine-readable form, and a standard record layout has been prepared for use by all participants. At the time of this report, CES had successfully transferred data sent by four states to the mainframe and begun analysis. This report also summarizes previous efforts at coordinating state and federal data collection from public libraries, explains what was proposed and what was done in the pilot project, and makes suggestions for the future regarding the timing, management, and content issues that need to be settled before the cooperative system is fully operational. The text is supplemented by 27 attachments, consisting of documents and correspondence which illustrate the process used and the items discussed. (12 bibliographic references) (EW)