It seems reasonable to envision, for a time 10 or 15 years hence, a "thinking center" that will incorporate the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval and ... a network of such centers, connected to one another by wide-band communication lines and to individual users by leased-wire services.
J. C. R. Licklider, Robert W. Taylor (1990). “In memoriam, J.C.R. Licklider, 1915-1990”