This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit examines the current state of online services based upon the experiences of a select number of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries in the United States and Canada. Many of the kit documents were obtained during a survey of eight private institutions conducted for Duke University in 1980. Informal survey results are summarized, and completed survey forms are included for each of the eight libraries. Contents also include: (1) reports on online search service activities and costs from Yale University, the University of British Columbia, Stanford University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Vanderbilt University; and (2) user and training manuals from Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, Texas A&M University, Cornell University, the National Library of Medicine, and Emory University. A concise summary considers the issues of centralization versus decentralization, staff training, user education and orientation, user fees, and the future possibilities of improved search service through simplification of system protocol. The implications of increased reliance on online abstracting and indexing services are also considered. (KM)