AGRICOLA IND 92047817; presented at IAALD Symposium on "Advances in Information Technology", September, 1991, Beltsville, MD, Since 1985 the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research has been involved in the production of a collection of its research reports on CD-ROM. This has involved the conversion of thousands of documents to machine-readable text and scanned images. This paper briefly outlines the history of the project from its inception to current status. Particular attention is paid to key factors that have impacted the design and production of the collection, with special emphasis on the ways in which this information can be put to use by those contemplating similar conversions. (original)