Based on telephone interviews with 12 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries, this report presents the underlying reasons for the libraries' decisions relating to the design and implementation of automated library systems. The survey results are summarized, a list of respondents is provided, and profiles of present and planned systems are presented. A copy of the telephone questionnaire is also included. Primary-source documents pertaining to the planning process, implementation, and operation of automated library systems are presented as follows: (1) Planning Process--"Charge to Automation Committee" (University of Houston), "Candidate Systems" (University of Michigan), "NOTIS at Rice University" (Rice University), "Committee Appointment Letters" (Ohio State University), "Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Future Information Services" (Texas A&M University), and "Formal Evaluation of Vendor Proposals" (Vanderbilt University); (2) Implementation--"Implementation and Operation of Linked/Interfaced Systems at the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign" (University of Illinois); "Operating Environment, Development Activities, 5-Year Projection" (University of North Carolina); and "Implementation Plan" (University of Michigan); and (3) Operation--"Proposed Service Agreement between the University Library System and the Computing Center" (University of Michigan), "Agreement Relative to Responsibilities to IBM" (Vanderbilt University), "New York University Libraries GEAC Online Catalog" (New York University), and "Use Statistics Survey" (Vanderbilt University). (KM)