[2] Its aim is to increase the ability of research libraries to share resources among themselves.
The holdings of these libraries provided the basis of the Copac online catalogue.
The Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) started in 1983 as an informal grouping of the seven largest university research libraries (the university libraries of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, and Oxford) to "explore the possibilities of closer co-operation, particularly, but not exclusively in the use of automation".
[4] By April 1997 the number of full members had increased to 20, including Trinity College Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, and the three national libraries of the UK and the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine had been admitted as associate members.
[5] The increased size of the organisation led to the appointment of the first full-time executive secretary in 1997.