Joined Doug Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center

In 1972, Elizabeth Feinler joined the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at SRI International, led by the visionary computer scientist Doug Engelbart, famous for inventing the computer mouse and pioneering hypertext concepts. This move placed Feinler directly within one of the most innovative research groups of the era, one dedicated to using computers to "augment human intellect."

Her specific task was to help compile and manage the ARPANET Resource Handbook, a comprehensive directory cataloging the growing network's participating institutions, researchers, and technical resources. This handbook was an essential tool for the ARPANET community, providing critical documentation at a time when the network was expanding rapidly and there was no centralized, formal way to track who was connected and what resources they offered.

Feinler's work at ARC exposed her to Engelbart's revolutionary ideas about interactive computing and information organization, which would deeply influence her subsequent approach to managing network information. This role also positioned her to take on the more formalized leadership responsibility she would assume the following year as principal investigator of the Network Information Center.

While an exact month and day for this transition are not verified in available sources, 1972 marks an important juncture in Feinler's career, linking her earlier documentation work to the large-scale, systematized information management she would pioneer as the ARPANET, and later the internet, continued to grow.