A research project sponsored by the Illinois State Library had two goals: to develop a set of mathematical models suitable for predicting the impact of alternative library network policies on network preformance, and to demonstrate through series of case studies that the methodology developed could feasibly be applied to real library networking…

The development of a mathematical model of the Illinois Library and Information Network (ILLINET) is described. Based on queueing network theory, the model predicts the probability of a request being satisfied, the average time from the initiation of a request to the receipt of the desired resources, the costs, and the processing loads. Using a…