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General News
Executive Search Committee Appoints Community Advisory Group
The Executive Search Committee of the OCLC Board of Trustees has named 13 people to a Community Advisory Group that will be involved in the search for the next President and Chief Executive Officer of OCLC to succeed Jay Jordan, who has announced his plans to retire June 30, 2012. Members of the Community Advisory Group will provide the Executive Search Committee with counsel regarding the selection of a new President and CEO, including input to the position profile, names for consideration, potential sources of candidates, and stakeholder perspectives. The Group will also be engaged in the final stage of the interview process. Members of the Community Advisory Group are:
- Pam Bailey, Member Advocate, OCLC.
- ChewLeng Beh, Vice President/President-Elect, OCLC Global Council, and Senior Director Library and Professional Services and Director of SILAS, National Library Board, Singapore.
- Paul Cappuzzello, Senior Library Services Consultant, OCLC.
- William Crowe, Former Member of the OCLC Board of Trustees and Librarian Emeritus, University of Kansas, USA.
- Carol Diedrichs, Director of Libraries, The Ohio State University, USA.
- Berndt Dugall, OCLC Global Council President and Direktor/Librarian, Universität Frankfurt, Universitätsbibliothek Johann Senckenberg, Germany.
- Chrystie Hill, Director, WebJunction Community Services, OCLC.
- Patrick Losinski, Executive Director, Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library, USA.
- Constance Malpas, Program Officer, OCLC Research.
- Andrew Pace, Executive Director, Networked Library Services, OCLC.
- Anja Smit, Regional Representative, OCLC Global Council, and University Librarian, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- John Ulmschneider, University Librarian, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
- Norbert Weinberger, Managing Director, Germany, OCLC.
The OCLC Board of Trustees announced formation of an Executive Search Committee on August 1. This Committee is leading the process to select the next leader of the OCLC cooperative:
- Chair, Sandy Yee, Dean of the Wayne State University Libraries and Library and Information Science Program.
- Ed Barry, President Emeritus, Oxford University Press.
- Maggie Farrell, Dean of Libraries, University of Wyoming.
- Bernadette Gray-Little, Chancellor, University of Kansas.
- Kathleen Imhoff, Library Consultant.
- David Lauer, Former President and COO, Bank One, NA.
- James Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, Columbia University.
- Elisabeth Niggemann, Director General, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
The OCLC Board has hired the executive search firm of Heidrick & Struggles to assist in the international search. On June 27, 2011, Jay Jordan announced his plans to retire as OCLC’s fourth president and CEO on June 30, 2012; by then he will have served 14 years in that position, the longest tenure of any OCLC president.
2012 Jay Jordan IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellowship Program
OCLC, along with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the American Theological Library Association, have named five librarians chosen to participate in the Jay Jordan IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellowship Program for 2012.
- Mrs. Efua Ayiah, Assistant Librarian, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.
- Ms. Gladys Mungai, Assistant Librarian, KIPPRA, Nairobi, Kenya.
- Mr. Md. Shafiur Rahman, Information Officer, ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
- Miss Tanzela Shaukat, Librarian, National Disaster Management Authority, Islamabad, Pakistan.
- Mrs. Ngozi Ukachi, Librarian II / Cataloguer, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
The Jay Jordan IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellowship Program supports library and information science professionals from countries with developing economies. The program provides advanced continuing education and exposure to a broad range of issues in information technologies, library operations, and global cooperative librarianship. With the selection of the five Fellows for the class of 2012, the program will have welcomed 60 librarians and information science professionals from 33 countries. During the four-week program, which will run from April 13 through May 10, 2012, the Fellows will participate in discussions with library and information science leaders, library visits, and professional development activities. The program will be based at OCLC headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, USA. Topics and issues explored include information technologies and their impact on libraries, library operations and management, and global cooperative librarianship. The program also gives Fellows the chance to share their home customs and cultures with other Fellows, with colleagues they meet during the program, and with their hosts. The Fellows’ visits to libraries provide other opportunities to broaden their knowledge about issues facing libraries today. They observe portions of the OCLC Global Council meeting, gaining insight into issues affecting global library cooperation and the governance of a global library cooperative. They visit selected libraries and cultural heritage institutions to meet with leading information professionals and discuss real-world solutions for libraries. The Fellows give formal and informal presentations about their home countries and libraries, and the challenges facing libraries in their home countries. As their program concludes, Fellows translate their program experiences into specific development plans to guide their continued growth and personal contributions to their home institutions and countries of origin.
Additional Funding for U.S. Public Library Awareness Campaign, Geek the Library
OCLC’s Geek the Library community awareness campaign, piloted in 2009 and 2010 and now available to all U.S. public libraries, has received an additional grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The supplementary $726,000 provides ongoing campaign materials and field support for libraries currently running the campaign, and allows OCLC to work with additional public libraries that sign up by March 31, 2012. Funding ensures that participating libraries can use the campaign to reach their local communities through June 2013. Since launch, hundreds of libraries across the U.S. have enrolled to run local Geek the Library campaigns—and more than 100 new campaigns have kicked off since the pilot ended. Participants are embracing the campaign, and are enthusiastically customizing content and actively involving their communities. Participating libraries receive an initial kit of Geek the Library materials, such as posters and stickers, plus additional kits as the campaign progresses, along with access to a comprehensive online guide to implementing the campaign. This resource features pages of advice for each phase of a local campaign, printable documents, art templates and images, a forum to share ideas with other participating libraries, and a blog that features ideas and updates weekly. Field managers also provide assistance in planning and roll-out, and are available to respond to questions throughout the campaign period. Geek the Library has a national campaign presence with its website, geekthelibrary.org, and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Geek the Library was developed based on the results of OCLC’s research published in From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America. The research and pilot campaign were also funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Libraries can get more information about implementing the campaign locally at get.geekthelibrary.org.
OCLC Recognized for Exemplary Workplace Practices
OCLC has been honored with the 2011 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility for its use of flexibility as an effective workplace strategy to increase business and employee success. This prestigious award, part of the national When Work Works project, recognizes employers of all sizes and types across the United States. Workplace flexibility—such as flextime, part-time work, and compressed workweeks—has been demonstrated to help businesses remain competitive while also benefiting employees. The Sloan Awards are unique for their rigorous, two-step selection process, which involves an evaluation of employers’ flexibility programs and practices, and a confidential employee survey. All applicants are measured against national norms from FWI’s National Study of Employers. When Work Works is a national project to educate the business community on the value of workplace flexibility by sharing research and promising practices, and conducting the annual Sloan Awards. It is an ongoing initiative of Families and Work Institute first funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In 2011, the Society for Human Resource Management and FWI formed a ground-breaking, multi-year partnership to grow When Work Works and help businesses become more successful by transforming the way they view and adopt effective and flexible workplaces. For more information about the When Work Works project and the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility, visit www.whenworkworks.org.
Cataloging and Metadata
OCLC-MARC Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats Update 2011
On Sunday, August 21, 2011, OCLC implemented the changes related to the OCLC-MARC Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats Update 2011. This includes MARC 21 Update No. 12 (dated October 2010), elements from other recent MARC 21 Updates whose implementations had been postponed, code list additions and changes published chiefly since May 2010, and other suggestions from WorldCat users and OCLC staff. Many of these elements, including those from MARC 21 Update No. 12, are related to Resource Description and Access (RDA). OCLC Technical Bulletin 260, which presents the details, is available at http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcat/tb/260/default.htm. Among the points of interest:
- Definition of a new “Descriptive Cataloging Form” (Leader/18; OCLC Fixed Field: Desc) value “c” indicating “ISBD Punctuation Omitted” in the Bibliographic Format.
- Implementation of four additional 007 fields (“Physical Description Fixed Fields”) for Kit, Notated Music, Text, and Unspecified, in the Bibliographic and Holdings Formats.
- Implementation of a new fixed field element in the Computer File format, “Form of Item” (Computer File 008/23 and 006/06; OCLC Fixed Field: Form) in the Bibliographic Format.
- Implementation of a new subfield $3 “Materials Specified” in field 034 “Coded Cartographic Mathematical Data” in the Bibliographic and Authority Formats.
- Implementation of a new subfield $u “Uniform Resource Identifier” in field 561 “Ownership and Custodial History” in the Bibliographic and Holdings Formats.
- Implementation of a new subfield $i “Relationship Information” in OCLC-defined 79X “Local Added Entry” fields in the Bibliographic Format.
- Implementation of a new subfield $5 “Institution to Which Field Applies” in Series Added Entry fields 800, 810, 811, and 830 in the Bibliographic Format.
- Implementation of three new Bibliographic indexes: Date Created as MARC (“dm:”), Entity Attributes (“en:”), and Physical Description (“p3:”). Two additional new Bibliographic indexes will be implemented later in 2011: Provenance (“pv:”) and Name and Title (“nx=”). All of these new indexes and other indexing changes described in Technical Bulletin 260 will gradually become apparent as WorldCat is reindexed over the next few months.
Any appropriate data conversions will begin soon. All new searching and indexing capabilities; new fields, new subfields, new indicators; and new codes announced in Technical Bulletin 260 can now be used in both Connexion browser and Connexion client.
Reference and Discovery
OCLC, IZUM Investigate Development of Information Systems in Balkans
OCLC and IZUM, the Institute of Information Science in Slovenia, have signed a Letter of Intent to investigate establishment of a strategic partnership to develop national library information systems in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. OCLC and IZUM will investigate forming a partnership to integrate core products and services from both organizations to provide an effective management and information discovery environment for libraries within COBISS.Net, the network that connects autonomous COBISS (Co-operative Online Bibliographic System and Services) library information systems of different countries and their current research information systems. OCLC and IZUM will look into ways to develop, localize, and implement OCLC Web-scale Management Services and COBISS applications. They will plan to load records from the union catalogues of participating countries into WorldCat and from WorldCat to the catalogues of the libraries within the COBISS.Net network. The organizations will also look into ways to distribute OCLC products and services in the nine countries.
WorldCat Local to Transform Resource Discovery in South African Libraries
OCLC and Sabinet, OCLC’s partner in South Africa, have signed an agreement to provide WorldCat Local, OCLC’s discovery service, as a single point of access and delivery of electronic, print, and digital resources to the National Library of South Africa and 15 academic institutions, offering a simplified discovery and delivery experience to end-users. Up to now, library users have needed to know which platform provides access to the information resources they are seeking. Having to navigate around several platforms has also made it difficult to discover the full range of electronic materials that the library has made available. With WorldCat Local, links to the full-text of licensed electronic content give users seamless access to all the library’s resources from a single search box. For the librarian, evaluation of those resources is greatly simplified by WorldCat Local’s aggregated presentation of usage statistics, making comparisons much easier. As part of a recent agreement between OCLC and Sabinet, a major supplier of online information to libraries in sub-Saharan Africa, libraries will now be able to access Sabinet’s African content on WorldCat Local, as well as the OCLC-licensed resources already on the platform. Where there is need to consult print items, WorldCat Local displays location and availability details. Users of the system can also use inter-library loan services in instances where there is neither print nor electronic provision of the item required in a local library. In addition to OCLC’s WorldCat Resource Sharing service, WorldCat Local will also link to South Africa’s national inter-library loan system, managed by Sabinet. Together, these two services represent a significant expansion of library collections. Efficiencies in implementation time mean that the majority of these libraries will go live with WorldCat Local in early 2012, in time for the return of students at the beginning of the academic year in February 2012. Established in 1983 and based in South Africa, Sabinet has worked in partnership with OCLC since 1995, acting as distributor for them in sub-Saharan Africa since 1997 when they also began cataloguing South African information resources onto the OCLC platform. This agreement was extended in 2000 to catalogue directly onto WorldCat. More information about Sabinet is available at http://www.sabinet.co.za/. The sixteen institutions who have so far adopted WorldCat Local are: Cape Peninsula University of Technology, National Library of South Africa, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, North-West University, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University, Tshwane University of Technology, University of Fort Hare, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Unisa, University of Pretoria, University of Venda, University of the Western Cape, University of the Witwatersrand, Vaal University of Technology, and Walter Sisulu University.
More Databases and Collections Added to WorldCat Local
OCLC has added more databases and signed agreements with leading publishers and other providers to add more content and collections to WorldCat Local, the OCLC discovery and delivery service that offers users integrated access to more than 865 million items. WorldCat Local provides access to books, journals, and databases in a variety of formats from a variety of publishers and content providers from around the world; the digital collections of groups like HathiTrust, OAIster, and Google Books; open access materials; and the collective resources of libraries worldwide through WorldCat. WorldCat Local can offer users access to more than 1,600 databases and collections, and more than 614 million articles. OCLC recently added content to the WorldCat Local central index, including:
- ABC-CLIO: World Religions: Belief, Culture and Controversy provides a virtual textbook that covers religion across the globe, making student research on faith and belief across humanity easier, and enabling a deeper understanding of the complex issues facing us in the 21st century.
- Accessible Archives, Inc.: Developed by dedicated instructors and students of American history, Accessible Archives’ databases contain the rich, comprehensive material found in leading historic periodicals and books. Eyewitness accounts of historical events, vivid descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records are available in a user-friendly online environment.
- ACM: The ACM Digital Library is the most comprehensive collection of full-text articles and bibliographic records in existence today covering the fields of computing and information technology. The full-text database includes the complete collection of ACM's publications, including journals, conference proceedings, magazines, newsletters, and multimedia titles
- Annual Reviews: Annual Reviews publications are among the most highly cited in the scientific literature, and are available in print and online to individuals, institutions, and consortia throughout the world.
- Cambridge University Press: Cambridge Companions Online is the electronic version of the renowned Cambridge Companions series, covering literature, philosophy, classics, religion, and cultural studies. Over 300 Companions offer lively, accessible introductions to major writers, artists, philosophers, topics, and periods. Historical Statistics of the United States is the standard source for the quantitative facts of American history. Lectrix is an innovative online resource which integrates selected classic works of Greek and Latin literature with commentaries from the world-renowned Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series for word-by-word, click-by-click access. Shakespeare Survey Online makes all issues of the Survey, including over 90 percent of the original images, available online for the first time.
- Gale: With over 76 million records, Business & Company Resource Center is a premier electronic information solution for all academic disciplines, business researchers and entrepreneurs.
- Genealogy Today: Genealogy Today has been publishing genealogy data and offering innovative services since 1999. This site provides time-saving resources and the latest techniques available in genealogy research.
- HAPI: The Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) includes over 275,000 journal article citations about Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, and Hispanics/Latinos in the United States. HAPI currently provides over 60,000 links to the full text of articles appearing in more than 600 key social science and humanities journals published throughout the world.
In addition, the following vendor record collections are now available in WorldCat Local and WorldCat.org for libraries that subscribe to this content and have purchased MARC records from the content provider:
- Cassidy Cataloguing: Westlaw IV - Law Journals and Law Reviews, Westlaw VI - International E-treatises, and Westlaw VII - Legal Newsletters are now available through WorldCat Local.
OCLC also has recently signed agreements with the following providers to add content into WorldCat Local:
- Religious and Theological Abstracts provides objective summaries of articles appearing in scholarly journals in the fields of Religion and Theology.
- The Berkeley Electronic Press: Libraries are increasingly using the Digital Commons platform to enable their faculty and students to publish open access, original scholarship. Digital Commons subscribers will now be able to select the high-value scholarly content, including library-hosted peer review journal content, they would like to make discoverable via WorldCat. The service will be available as part of the growing suite of Digital Commons publishing services, and will serve to further increase the discovery of this open access and original scholarship.
OCLC continues to negotiate access to critical library content on behalf of the cooperative to ensure access to libraries’ most popular resources. To view a list of databases and collections from these and other publishers available through WorldCat Local, visit the website at http://www.oclc.org/us/en/worldcatlocal/default.htm.
Early Journal Content from JSTOR via WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local
OCLC's WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local services enable discovery of full-text of the Early Journal Content on JSTOR, alongside additional full-text content, evaluative information and metadata from the collections of thousands of OCLC member libraries and publishers worldwide. JSTOR recently announced that it would make the full text of its Early Journal Content freely accessible to anyone in the world. These works are also available to be discovered through OCLC services. The Early Journal Content from JSTOR is defined as those works “published prior to 1923 in the United States and prior to 1870 elsewhere.” This subset of content is estimated to be roughly 6% of the journal content on JSTOR, which includes articles from more than 1,400 journals. A cooperative partnership with JSTOR has been in place since 2009. Since that time, OCLC has indexed and loaded the metadata for more than 4.6 million articles—and continues to add additional new content through monthly updates. Document metadata available through WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local begins in 1603 and covers an international range of publishers. Users affiliated with WorldCat Local libraries and WorldCat.org users will discover records for Early Journal Content on JSTOR included in result sets. Examples of Early Journal Content articles available through WorldCat.org include “Municipal Socialism and Its Economic Limitations” from Political Science Quarterly (1909) and “On the True Date of the Rosetta Stone, and on the Inferences Deducible from It” from The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy (1843). A user may discover the item and simply click the embedded jstor.org link under the heading to “Find a copy online” to access the full-text of the article. Publishers and services such as JSTOR gain valuable visibility by working directly with OCLC to make metadata and content for entire collections available through OCLC services such as WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local. Library users benefit by having a single place to discover rich, relevant materials in libraries worldwide.
HathiTrust Full-Text Index to be Integrated into OCLC Services
OCLC and HathiTrust have signed an agreement that will allow OCLC to integrate the HathiTrust full-text index into OCLC services, enabling member libraries and their users to more easily discover resources from this important digital collection through WorldCat. Under this new agreement, OCLC will be able to integrate the full-text index of HathiTrust collections into services such as WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local. Following integration of the full-text index, users will be able to search beyond bibliographic records to include the full text of these cooperatively built library collections in their searches. Content from the HathiTrust Digital Library complements member libraries’ collections already in WorldCat. Through a single search of WorldCat.org or WorldCat Local, users will easily find HathiTrust resources and other materials available in their own collections, and in the collections of thousands of libraries around the world that are part of the OCLC cooperative. As a digital repository for the nation’s great research libraries, the HathiTrust Digital Library brings together the massive digitized collections of partner institutions. HathiTrust offers libraries a means to archive and provide access to their digital content, whether scanned volumes, special collections, or born-digital materials. The representation of these resources in digital form offers expanded opportunities for innovative use in research, teaching, and learning. Earlier in 2011, OCLC and HathiTrust began testing a unique WorldCat Local user interface for discovery of items accessible through the HathiTrust Digital Library. The WorldCat Local prototype for the HathiTrust Digital Library, available to anyone on the Web, was designed and implemented by both organizations in close cooperation as a means to further develop a shared digital library infrastructure. HathiTrust Digital Library records are discoverable through the separate WorldCat Local interface, as well as through WorldCat.org, available on the Web at www.worldcat.org. OCLC and HathiTrust continue to work together to increase online visibility and accessibility of the digital collections by creating WorldCat records describing the content and linking to the collections via WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local.
Digital Collection Services
Society of American Archivists Endorses “Well-Intentioned Practice”
The “Well-intentioned practice (WIP) for putting digitized collections of unpublished materials online,” prepared by OCLC Research, has been endorsed as a standard by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Council. This practice provides the framework for an assertive approach to digitization of unpublished archival materials, such as photographs, letters, or the records of an organization’s work, whose rights holders are often difficult to identify and contact. It promotes a practical approach to identifying and resolving rights issues that is in line with professional and ethical standards and emphasizes a collective approach to the management of the copyright responsibilities involved in large-scale digitization projects. This approach is the output of a 2010 seminar in which OCLC Research convened a group of experts in archives, special collections, and law to develop streamlined, community-accepted procedures for managing copyright in the digital age that would cut costs and boost confidence in libraries’ and archives’ ability to increase access to unpublished materials online. The group acknowledged that, although there is risk in digitizing materials that may be in copyright, this risk should be balanced with the harm to scholarship and society inherent in not making collections fully accessible. Based on this premise, they identified a practical approach to selecting collections, making decisions, seeking permissions, recording outcomes, establishing policy, and working with future donors, which was outlined in the “Well-intentioned practice” document. Since then, a community of practice has been forming around the WIP that will increase and significantly improve access to collections of unpublished materials for the purpose of furthering research and learning. SAA’s Intellectual Property Working Group (IPWG), which tracks intellectual property issues of concern to archivists and drafts responses or position papers as needed, provided a preface for SAA’s endorsement of this practice. Both the preface and the endorsement are available on SAA’s standards portal (http://www2.archivists.org/standards/well-intentioned-practice-for-putting-digitized-collections-of-unpublished-materials-onlin). The “Well-intentioned practice for putting digitized collections of unpublished materials online” document is available online at http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/rights/practice.pdf. By endorsing WIP as a standard, SAA joins a distinguished group of organizations and individuals that support the practices outlined in the WIP. Other organizations that have joined the community of practice by endorsing these procedures include the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the American Library Association (ALA), the Joint National Committee on Archives, Libraries and Museums (CALM), and the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA).
Free CONTENTdm Training from OCLC
OCLC is pleased to announce that free, live-online CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software training is now available, in addition to the free training that’s already available for Cataloging, Resource Sharing and FirstSearch services. This free CONTENTdm training, which will be offered on a bimonthly basis, will provide new users with information about the fundamentals of using CONTENTdm to manage their digital collections. The training is comprised of three, two-hour basic skills courses:
- CONTENTdm Basic Skills 1: Getting Started with CONTENTdm.
- CONTENTdm Basic Skills 2: Working with Text in CONTENTdm.
- CONTENTdm Basic Skills 3: Maintaining Collections in CONTENTdm.
Advances in e-learning technologies and an increased demand for online learning now allow us to provide training at greater economies of scale. OCLC is passing these savings on to members by offering free training on our most-used services. You can find out more about the CONTENTdm training and sign up for the upcoming courses at the OCLC Training Portal: http://training.oclc.org/training. To see the list of available courses, look for CONTENTdm under Digital Collection Management.
Enhancing the Newly Redesigned CONTENTdm
In March 2011, OCLC introduced CONTENTdm version 6, which offered a complete redesign for the end-user experience along with new website configuration tools that enabled digital collection administrators to easily customize their collections’ websites without programming expertise. In this latest release, CONTENTdm version 6.1, OCLC has further enhanced the software by providing end users with social features to comment, tag, and rate digital items, encouraging engagement with your library’s digital collections. And administrators are now able to do even more customization to their collections websites, including localizing all navigation and messaging elements into one or more languages (11 languages are supplied with CONTENTdm: Catalan, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Thai). With CONTENTdm 6.1, end users can now easily download and print images and documents they find in online digital collections. For images, different sizes may be offered for download including full resolution, if stored in the Archival File Manager. And newspapers with article segmentation are now fully discoverable, allowing end users to search for and discover article-level metadata and see individual articles highlighted within each page via an enhanced newspaper viewer. Some of the other new features available with the updated CONTENTdm include the capability to: arrange the list of collections on a collection’s home page in whatever order makes sense for your library; add a customized collection home page; and group digital collections together by geography, topic, or institution for searching or browsing. Administrators will be able to disable or enable any of these new CONTENTdm 6.1 features, either globally or by collection, using the website configuration tools. This provides your library with full control of the configuration of your unique online collections, allowing you to choose how to best display and represent them on the Web. More than 2,000 libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions around the world use CONTENTdm to manage their digital collections and deliver them to the Web. More about CONTENTdm is available at www.oclc.org/contentdm.
Resource Sharing and Delivery
ILLiad Version 8.1 Now Available
OCLC and Atlas Systems have released version 8.1 of the ILLiad interlibrary loan management suite software. Enhancements in the new version include new Word document templates using Excel data files and Odyssey support for sending and receiving documents in PDF format. ILLiad 8.1 completes the migration to ILLiad 8.0 ribbon-based interface and removes the previous requirement of using the Borland Database Engine (BDE). Use of the Microsoft .NET communications framework and C# as the programming language will make ILLiad development more agile and flexible to accommodate future needs of member libraries. Enhancements include: IFM charges for incoming borrowing items are now reflected in service reports; Lending Due Date Override values are available for groups; Shipped messages are reflected in lending notes on the request form; Additional user-defined fields are available for client Web pages. The new software version requires a server update, so all hosted ILLiad sites should contact OCLC or Atlas Systems to schedule their update:
- OCLC Customer Support: 800-848-5800 or support@oclc.org.
- Altas Systems Support: 800-567-7401 ext. 1 or service@atlas-sys.com.
Additional information about ILLiad version 8.1 are available in the following:
Contact OCLC support at 800-848-5800 or support@oclc.org for assistance with your library's transition to this new software version.
Ingram's MyiLibrary® Short-Term Access via WorldCat Resource Sharing
OCLC and Ingram Content Group have launched a new e-book service option that provides libraries and their patrons short-term access to e-book content that is not in a library's collection through WorldCat Resource Sharing. The new e-book service option increases the amount of content available through WorldCat Resource Sharing. Through the collaboration, e-books from Ingram's MyiLibrary e-book collection will be available to participating libraries and their patrons for a nine day period. The option will be available in ILLiad within the next several months. E-book loans are fee-based, set at an average of 15 percent of the MyiLibrary price set by the publisher for access to the e-book. The fee is managed through the WorldCat Resource Sharing interlibrary loan fee management (IFM) feature that supports payment of resource-sharing services through the library's OCLC invoice. The addition of Ingram's MyiLibrary content provides access to more than 50,000 e-book titles and is growing daily. Content from the world's leading publishers, such as Taylor and Francis and Wiley are currently available through the new short-term access option. Records for all titles have been added to WorldCat under the symbol IDILL, so users will find these titles when they search the WorldCat database via WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local, WorldCat Local "quick start", and FirstSearch. Interlibrary loan staff can then facilitate access to the available titles by requesting them from IDILL. View the list of available e-book titles at http://www.oclc.org/us/en/resourcesharing/IDILL_Sorted.xls. To support the new and growing e-book access program, Ingram will send "Conditional" messages to request that borrowing library staff take an action such as enabling IFM or adjusting their Maxcost setting to accommodate the cost of an e-book loan. Ingram will place the link to the e-book in the new field "Alert" to notify the borrower immediately that the request has been filled and to alert the library that they will have nine days from the date the e-book is "shipped" to use the link before it expires. This short-term access option delivers e-books to users quickly, so they can begin to use requested titles right away. Once a request is updated to "shipped" status, it is immediately available for use with no delays for shipping, or the time required to pick up a requested print title. This supports the way many users make use of e-books to obtain specific parts of information for research. For example, often a chapter or section of an e-book is all they need to use. The MyiLibrary interface allows users to search the full text of titles to quickly identify the sections they need.
Exposing WorldCat Content via Ex Libris Discovery and Delivery Solutions
OCLC and Ex Libris Group® have signed an agreement that will enable Ex Libris to incorporate the WorldCat Search API into several Ex Libris discovery and delivery services, providing OCLC member libraries access to WorldCat through the Ex Libris Primo® and MetaLib® solutions. Ex Libris will integrate the WorldCat Search API, which provides machine-to-machine access to WorldCat bibliographic records and holdings data, into its applications to make the collections of OCLC libraries discoverable. Libraries will be able to activate this functionality by registering their key to the WorldCat Search API within their Ex Libris system.
OCLC to Offer Atlas Systems’ Free Electronic Document Delivery Software
Atlas Systems, the leading provider of time-saving solutions for libraries, has announced that OCLC will extend its suite of resource sharing services with Odyssey™ 3.0, the new version of Atlas’ free stand-alone electronic delivery software. Odyssey complements the OCLC ILLiad™ Resource Sharing Management Software that was developed by Atlas Systems and is now distributed by OCLC. The stand-alone version of Odyssey allows sites to send and receive electronic documents to and from other Odyssey sites, OCLC ILLiad sites, and any other supplier’s software that supports the Odyssey protocol.
Odyssey Client Version 3 Available for Free Download
The Odyssey Client version 3 is available for download from the Atlas Systems web site (https://www.atlas-sys.com/odyssey/). This is the FREE stand-alone client that allows non-ILLiad libraries to send and receive Odyssey documents with each other and ILLiad libraries. This version is a complete re-write of the client and includes support for sending PDF files (to sites that are able to receive them). If you are already using a previous version of Odyssey, you can install this version and run the address book import tool to keep all your receiving library records. You will not be prompted to update to this version if you are using the older versions, so be sure to download this new setup file. Remember that this free software does not come with a support package, but does have all new documentation available at: https://prometheus.atlas-sys.com/display/odyssey/, as well as a participant listserv at: http://iris.atlas-sys.com/mailman/listinfo/odyssey-l. You can also test that your client is set up correctly by using our Odyssey Test Interface here: http://www.atlas-sys.com/products/odyssey/test/.
Management Services and Systems
Theodore Front Musical Literature Now an Active WorldCat Selection Partner
Founded in 1961, Theodore Front has a goal of providing information and materials to facilitate building institutional and private music collections. University, college, conservatory, and public libraries worldwide use Theodore Front's collection development tools, which are continuously refined to suit the most exacting and current requirements of music libraries. Approval plans and firm orders for music scores, books and audio-visual materials, standing orders, subscriptions, and out-of-print services are offered with professional expertise. Newly released materials from the United States, the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific Rim are reviewed and updated daily. A variety of electronic and online services, management reports and other facilitators are available on demand.
WebJunction
IMLS Grant to Get Communities on the Path to Digital Inclusion
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded a grant of $249,871 to OCLC's WebJunction for a project to help communities across the country get started on the path to digital inclusion. The project will complement IMLS's efforts to help libraries and other community-based organizations make strategic decisions about providing public access to broadband. Working with partners TechSoup Global, and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), WebJunction will evaluate the needs of libraries, community-based organizations (CBOs), and city and county managers seeking to get started with digital inclusion. Based on these findings, the partners will create and test a summit agenda for local community gatherings to develop a shared understanding about digital inclusion and begin to create an action plan. The partners will make improvements to the agenda based on the test results and select a limited number of sites to participate in an in-person summit. Participating sites will identify teams of library representatives, city or county managers, and community-based organization representatives to participate in the program. Each team will develop and host at least one digital inclusion activity in its local community. The partners will also provide resources online at WebJunction, TechSoup Global, and ICMA’s Knowledge Network. In addition, partners will evaluate and publish outcomes, and jointly report to IMLS on project effectiveness and lessons learned. The National Broadband Plan released by the Federal Communications Commission in March 2010 noted that “absent action, the individual and societal costs of digital exclusion would continue to grow.” The Plan recommended that IMLS provide leadership to libraries and CBOs as they improve digital adoption and use. In response, and in partnership with the University of Washington and the International City/County Management Association, IMLS has proposed a Framework for Digitally Inclusive Communities. The framework was developed with input from over 100 organizations and individuals with deep knowledge about public access technology and the diverse information needs of communities. IMLS and its partners are currently seeking public input on the framework.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission Joins WebJunction Partner Program
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has joined the WebJunction Partner Program, which provides library staff in Texas access to courses through the WebJunction community to keep skills up-to-date and help libraries respond to current patron needs. WebJunction-Texas is a new service offered by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission for the professional development and training needs of library staff. The service offers unlimited self-paced courses selected from multiple providers to library staff at no charge, and free webinars produced by WebJunction staff just for libraries. Through the WebJunction.org community, library staff members can find training resources and answers to on-the-job questions, and connect with colleagues to exchange knowledge and ideas. WebJunction-Texas is among 17 states that are part of the WebJunction Partner Program. Through the WebJunction Partner Program, library staff receive premium access to the programs, courses, and expertise on WebJunction. Partners receive easy, anytime reporting and administration, freeing up resources to focus on local needs. By working together to meet common training goals, Partners save time and money. A list of links to WebJunction Partner communities is available on the WebJunction Partner Program website at http://www.webjunction.org/services.
OCLC Research
New Briefing Paper: The Top 25 US Public Libraries' Collective Collection
OCLC Research Scientist Brian Lavoie provides an overview for the National Digital Public Library conference. The Top 25 US Public Libraries' Collective Collection, as Represented in WorldCat characterizes the combined collections of the top 25 US public libraries, as represented in the WorldCat database. These libraries account for more than 34 million holdings in WorldCat across 13.5 million distinct publications. The report considers overlap vs. uniqueness of holdings for these libraries, and compares their collective collection with the collective holdings of the rest of the US public libraries whose holdings are represented in WorldCat. It also compares their collective collection to the collective WorldCat holdings of ARL member libraries, and to all US academic libraries represented in WorldCat. The report examines the prevalence of "rare" materials in the top 25 US public libraries, certain copyright implications based on the age of collectively held materials, and the global diversity represented in these collections. For more information, see http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/lavoie-ndpl.pdf.
IMLS Issues Grant for Further Collaborative Study of Virtual Reference Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal agency, has awarded a National Leadership Grant for a collaborative research project between OCLC Research and the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information (SC&I) to investigate library-based Virtual Reference Services (VRS). OCLC Senior Research Scientist Lynn Silipigni Connaway will join Rutgers University SC&I faculty members Marie L. Radford and Chirag Shah as Co-Principal Investigators in a study of new models that permit more collaborative and sustainable delivery of virtual reference services. The $250,000 National Leadership Grant recently announced by IMLS will support the project for two years beginning in October 2011. The grant, which was made to Rutgers, represents about 45 percent of overall funding for the project, with the remainder coming from Rutgers and OCLC. This project, titled “Cyber Synergy: Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between Virtual Reference and Social Q&A Sites,” builds on an earlier IMLS-funded collaboration between Rutgers and OCLC, and includes investigation of models that rely upon more extensive collaboration among librarians and subject experts. The earlier effort, “Seeking Synchronicity: Evaluating Virtual Reference Services from User, Non-User, and Librarian Perspectives,” was led by Radford and Connaway and spanned a five-year period. The findings were recently summarized for a broad audience in a report published by OCLC, "Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference". Over the past decade, many libraries successfully introduced live chat and instant messaging reference services to supplement traditional face-to-face services. These services are popular with the public, but are hard to maintain in today’s environment of reduced funding. The new project will generate findings and recommendations to help members of the library community better understand their options as they implement the next generation of virtual reference services (VRS). The current project proposes a new model that enables virtual reference services to remain viable despite today’s environment of reduced resources. It will investigate the possibility of seamless collaboration between knowledge institutions such as libraries and the Social Q&A (SQA) community. Use statistics indicate that VRS continues to grow as most libraries now offer VRS as popular alternatives to traditional face-to-face reference. The new project’s three phases will identify VRS system enhancements to help achieve sustainability and to collaboratively leverage subject knowledge to meet user needs and heightened expectations. Phase I (Transcript Content Analysis) consists of a longitudinal analysis of 500 randomly selected VRS transcripts and 1000 SQA site transcripts. Phase II (Telephone Interviews and Analysis) includes in-depth phone interviews with 150 subjects from key user and information provider populations. Phase III (Constructing Design Specifications) focuses on creating design specifications to link VRS and SQA to explore solutions for VRS sustainability.
OhioLINK–OCLC Collection and Circulation Analysis Project 2011
OhioLINK and OCLC Research have released a report of, and the data set used in, a joint study of OhioLINK circulation, to better understand the usage patterns of books in academic libraries and support further research in this area. The study, which incorporated usage data from 2007-2008, was limited to books and manuscripts because these materials typically circulate, and circulation is a significant element in evaluating collections. The report, OhioLINK—OCLC Collection and Circulation Analysis Project 2011 (http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-06r.htm), provides an overview of the study, a description of how the data was analyzed and made available, and suggested uses for the data. The report is accompanied online by an extensive set of Excel spreadsheets that analyze the usage patterns observed in the study. The data used in the report was from a collaborative OCLC-OhioLINK Collection and Circulation Analysis project that joined OhioLINK circulation data with WorldCat bibliographic records to produce a base file of circulation records for nearly 30 million different books. Ninety institutions participated in the study, including 16 universities, 23 community/technical colleges, 50 private colleges, and the State Library of Ohio. The size of the combined collection and the number and diversity of participating institutions make this by far the largest and most comprehensive study of academic library circulation ever undertaken. Perhaps the most fascinating result of the study was a test of the “80/20” rule. Librarians have long espoused the belief that 80 percent of a library’s circulation is driven by approximately 20 percent of the collection. The analysis of a year’s circulation statistics from this study indicates that 80 percent of the circulation is driven by just 6 percent of the collection. The dataset generated by the project has also been made publicly available under the Open Data Commons Attribution license (an open license) to download for study and research. It is the largest and most diverse set of academic usage data for books ever collected. Because the data analysis described in the report represents only a fraction of what might be done with the data, OhioLINK and OCLC Research made the data publicly available so it could be studied to its full potential and other libraries could correlate it against their own data to determine how it compares with their individual use patterns. The current OCLC-OhioLINK project team will also continue to study the data.
New Report: Single Search: The Quest for the Holy Grail
This report highlights successful strategies in providing a single point of access to library, archive, and museum collections. In the era of global search engines, users are often puzzled by the realization that they can search the Internet through a single interface, yet the resources of universities and other institutions are often compartmentalized in a plethora of informational silos, each with its own dedicated system, search categories, and user interfaces. Many institutions want to make the breadth of their local resources easily discoverable regardless of where and how the resources are managed. To address this desire, OCLC Research facilitated a working group of nine single search implementers through discussions about the opportunities for, and obstacles to, integrating single search access across an institution. Members of this group told their stories, identified issues, and acknowledged similarities and differences in their approaches. This brief report summarizes those discussions and highlights the emerging practices in providing single search access to an institution's collections. The goal of the report is to foster successful single search implementations by sharing the experience of the working group with those who are just beginning to plan single search implementations. Read the report, Single Search: The Quest for the Holy Grail at http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-17r.htm. Learn more about the Single Search for Library, Archive, and Museum Collections project at http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/lamsearch/default.htm.
Taking Stock and Making Hay: Archival Collections Assessment
This report identifies projects and methodologies to make it easier for institutions of all types to undertake collections assessment and to encourage a community of practice. An accurate census of archival collections enables an institution to act strategically in meeting user needs, allocating available resources and securing additional funding. The systematic gathering of quantitative and qualitative data about collections (including processed, under-processed, and unprocessed collections) makes possible the provision of basic and consistent collection-level descriptions; affords a better understanding of unmet preservation needs; and informs important decisions regarding collection management, processing priorities, selection, and other activities associated with digitization and exhibit preparation. Although a number of institutions have undertaken collections assessments, a single, commonly-understood approach does not exist. This report identifies projects and methodologies and suggests areas that need work. The goal of the report is to make it easier for institutions of all types to undertake collections assessments and to encourage a community of practice. Written by Martha O'Hara Conway, University of Michigan, and Merrilee Proffitt, OCLC Research, this report is the result of a working group convened by OCLC Research that reviewed a number of existing tools and methodologies for collection assessment, hoping to recommend a common approach. In the end this was not deemed practical, as institutional needs (the "why" of doing collections assessment) vary considerably. Read the report, Taking Stock and Making Hay: Archival Collections Assessment at http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-07r.htm. Learn more about the OCLC Research project associated with the report, Develop a Holistic Approach to Archival Collections Assessment at http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/backlogtools/default.htm.
Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums, Part 1: Site Reviews
This report provides an overview of social metadata to enable cultural heritage institutions to better utilize their users' expertise and enrich their descriptive metadata to improve their users' experiences. Metadata helps users locate resources that meet their specific needs. But metadata also helps us to understand the data we find and helps us to evaluate what we should spend our time on. Traditionally, staff at libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) create metadata for the content they manage. However, social metadata—content contributed by users—is evolving as a way to both augment and recontextualize the content and metadata created by LAMs. Many cultural heritage institutions are interested in gaining a better understanding of social metadata and also learning how to best utilize their users' expertise to enrich their descriptive metadata and improve their users' experiences. In order to facilitate this, a 21-member RLG Partners Social Metadata Working Group reviewed 76 sites relevant to libraries, archives, and museums that supported such social media features as tagging, comments, reviews, images, videos, ratings, recommendations, lists, links to related articles, etc. In addition, working group members surveyed site managers, analyzed the survey results and discussed the factors that contribute to successful—and not so successful—use of social metadata. They also considered issues related to assessment, content, policies, technology, and vocabularies. This report includes an environmental scan of 76 social metadata sites and a detailed review of 24 representative sites. It is the first of three OCLC Research reports about social metadata. The second report will provide an analysis of the results from a survey of site managers, and the third report will provide recommendations on social metadata features most relevant to libraries, archives, and museums as well as the factors contributing to success. Read the report, Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums, Part 1: Site Reviews at
http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-02r.htm. Learn more about the OCLC Research project associated with the report, Sharing and Aggregating Social Metadata, at http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/aggregating/default.htm.
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Newsletter 31.4 (December 2011)
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