Archive for July, 2011
Introduction webinar to EZproxy hosted service
You’ve heard of the British Prime Minister’s Question Time? Now there’s Product Manager’s Question Time for the hosted version of EZproxy, the leading authentication and access service.
Join Don Hamparian, EZproxy product manager, as he walks through the basics of authentication and the specifics of the EZproxy hosted service. You’ll learn how EZproxy works in general, and have plenty of time to ask questions about your specific situation during the Webinar. It’s ideal for any library who wishes to give users a secure and easy way to access the library’s e-resources from outside the library—with no additional hardware/infrastructure requirements or technical expertise on the library’s part.
Any institution from a multi-branch, multi-campus system to a small special library can benefit from an EZproxy hosted solution. It can free up valuable development/IT staff resources to tackle more challenging activities.
To subscribe to the EZproxy hosted service or learn more about the hosted version, please contact EZproxy@oclc.org with your name, institution and FTE or community served.
17 August 2011
3:00 PM–4:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time, North America
Register for this event ››
July 26th, 2011
OCLC releases new membership research report:
Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference
A ground-breaking membership report from OCLC Research suggests that by transforming virtual reference (VR) service encounters into relationship-building opportunities, librarians can better leverage the positive feelings people have for libraries. This is critically important in a crowded online space where the biggest players often don’t have the unique experience and specific strengths offered by librarians.
The report—Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference—demonstrates that today’s students, scholars and citizens are not just looking to libraries for answers to specific questions—they want partners and guides in a lifelong information-seeking journey.
Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference, from OCLC Research, in partnership with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and additionally funded by the Institute of Library and Museum Services (IMLS), distils more than five years of VR research into a readable summary featuring memorable quotes that vividly illustrate very specific and actionable suggestions. Taken from a multiphase research project that included focus group interviews, online surveys, transcript analysis and phone interviews, with VR librarians, users and non-users, these findings are meant to help practitioners develop and sustain VR services and systems. The report asserts that the “R” in “VR” needs to emphasize virtual “Relationships” as well as “Reference.” Among the topics addressed are:
- How convenience is the “hook” that draws users into VR services
- The exaggerated death of ready reference
- The importance of query clarification in VR
- Ways to boost accuracy and build better interpersonal relationships in VR
- What can be learned from VR transcripts
- Generational differences in how people perceive reference interactions and determine success
- The need for more and better marketing of a suite of services – a “multi-asking” approach
The report’s two primary authors, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D., OCLC Senior Research Scientist, and Marie L. Radford, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Communication & Information, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, said that the goal of their work together, which began in 2005, has been to deliver research-based recommendations that improve the VR services provided by information professionals.
“The purpose of this new publication,” Connaway said, “is to showcase several years’ and several hundred pages’ worth of work with a few very specific, practical suggestions for sustaining and developing VR services and systems. This short report is designed to be a quick read that is informative in boiling down results from our multi-year research project involving two teams of researchers, at OCLC and Rutgers University.”
“It is organized into topical chapters that are illustrated with graphs and quotations that bring our findings to life,” added Radford. “We also provide an introduction that serves as an executive summary so that readers can quickly understand and apply our research findings and recommendations to immediately improve VR experiences for all users.”
View and download the report at http://www.oclc.org/reports/synchronicity. More information on the “Seeking Synchronicity” project is available at http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/synchronicity/, and other OCLC membership reports can be found at www.oclc.org/reports/.
July 26th, 2011
Credo Reference, OCLC announce new agreement to bring WorldCat content to Credo General Reference service
DUBLIN, Ohio, July 14, 2011—OCLC and Credo Reference are pleased to announce they have signed an agreement to integrate the WorldCat Search API into the Credo General Reference service, their flagship content application. With this new agreement, OCLC member libraries that subscribe to the Credo General Reference service will be able to retrieve a list of books from WorldCat related to the topic of their Credo Reference search.
“One of the keys to the cooperative’s Web-scale strategy is the ability to develop a network of partners that will tap into WorldCat for access to the collections of OCLC members,” said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development. “Our partnership with Credo Reference is a natural fit. Uniting content from their impressive collection of high-quality titles and extensive subject coverage with WorldCat will provide users the most relevant information related to their search.”
“We’re pleased to team with OCLC to provide this additional feature to our respective users,” said Mike Sweet, Credo Reference CEO. “Our services naturally complement each other and, together, provide users with a richer and more directed research experience.”
Under this new partnership, authenticated users will be able to access the Credo General Reference service from the library or Credo Reference website and perform a search for encyclopedic entries. Each entry includes a side panel listing books that are related to the topic generated from a search of WorldCat using the library’s key to the WorldCat Search API. Each book includes a link to the library’s OPAC or discovery application to get additional information, such as shelf status.
Credo Reference expects to release the functionality later this month. Libraries will be able to activate the functionality by registering their key to the WorldCat Search API within the application. Libraries that do not already have a key to the API can visit the OCLC website for more information on how to obtain a key.
July 18th, 2011
More databases and collections from around the world added to WorldCat Local
OCLC has signed agreements with leading publishers and other content providers from around the world to add more databases and collections to WorldCat Local, the OCLC discovery service that offers users integrated access to more than 800 million items in libraries worldwide.
Libraries using WorldCat Local can offer users access to 1,400 databases and collections, and more than 500 million articles.
OCLC recently signed agreements with publishers to make more content available through WorldCat Local, including:
- Annual Reviews: The U.S. based Annual Reviews will add its highly cited critical review journals in disciplines within the Biomedical, Life, Physical & Social Sciences and Economics.
- ASABE: The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers is an international scientific and educational organization furthering the advancement of engineering in agricultural, food, and biological systems. ASABE will make its publications available via its online Technical Library.
- Berkeley Electronic Press: ResearchNow, published by Berkeley Electronic Press, comprises peer-reviewed academic journals in Economics, Law, Statistics, Medicine and the Humanities.
- Gale: Gale is a leading U.S. educational publisher for libraries, schools and businesses. Seven additional databases will be added to those already accessible through WorldCat Local, including Business & Company Resource Center; Literature Criticism Online; Beacham’s Guide to the Endangered Species of North America; Biography and Genealogy Master Index; Gale Virtual Reference Library; National Newspaper Index and Twayne’s Authors Series.
- Genealogy Today: Genealogy Today is U.S. publisher of genealogy data, family tree history and ancestry-related information services. The Genealogy Today database and Archive Catalog will be added to WorldCat Local.
- The Institution of Engineering and Technology: The British IET provides a range of leading publications and information services in the areas of engineering and technology. IET will add access to books, journals and the INSPEC database to WorldCat Local.
- Karger: The Swiss S. Karger AG is a renowned medical and scientific publishing house, making its large books and journals program available through WorldCat Local.
- M.E. Sharpe: M.E. Sharpe is a privately held U.S. publisher of books and journals in the social sciences and humanities, including titles in economics, political science, management, literature, and history, making Sharpe Online, books and journals available.
- Modern Language Association: The MLA is an international membership organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature. The MLA will be adding its highly regarded MLA International Bibliography to WorldCat Local, providing a subject index for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore and linguistics.
- National Institute of Justice: The National Institute of Justice is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. NIJ produces print and electronic publications, tools, and training materials about crime and justice. National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts will be added to WorldCat Local.
- Oxford University Press: Oxford University Press is the world’s largest university press and publishes in all academic fields, from multiple offices around the world. Five additional databases from the Oxford University Press will be accessible through WorldCat Local, including Oxford Music Online (including Grove’s Music), Oxford Art Online (including Grove’s Art), Oxford Reference Online, American Dictionary of National Biography and Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
WorldCat Local provides access to books, journals and databases from a variety of publishers and information 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.
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 1,400 databases and collections from these and other publishers available through WorldCat Local, visit the website.
For more information, visit the WorldCat Local website.
July 12th, 2011
Heard people talk about “using APIs and Web Services” and not quite sure what they were talking about?
Join Karen Coombs of the OCLC Developer Network as she demystifies the topic. You’ll walk away understanding what an API or Web service is, what it can do and see examples of how libraries and WorldCat partners have used Web Services from OCLC and others in apps and current services.
There are no dumb questions and no technical knowledge required to get the full benefit of the session.
Date: Thursday, July 28, 2011
Time: 12:00 pm noon, Eastern Daylight Time
Register today!
July 11th, 2011
DUBLIN, Ohio, July 1, 2011—OCLC recognized award winners during the OCLC President’s Luncheon June 27 at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibit held in New Orleans, Louisiana. Part of OCLC’s commitment to research and education includes furthering the advancement of librarianship. OCLC does this not only through advocacy efforts, Research and Innovation Lab, but also by financially supporting awards and scholarships. OCLC is proud to announce the following 2011 awards that recognize innovation and creativity in the library community:
OCLC/LITA Minority Scholarship in Library and Information Technology
Diamond Camille Sankey, Wayne State University
Margaret Mann Citation
Awarded posthumously to Edward Swanson, former Manager, MINITEX Contract Cataloging and Coordinator of Library Cataloging and Principal Cataloger, Minnesota Historical Society
John Ames Humphry/OCLC Forest Press Award for International Librarianship
Sally Tseng, Former President, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) and Head of Serials Cataloging, University of California, Irvine
American Library Association’s Melvil Dewey Medal
Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, the Library of Congress
Virginia Boucher—OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian
Ed Rivenburgh, Information Delivery Services Project Director, Milne Library, State University of New York (SUNY), Geneseo
Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology
Dr. Daniel J. Cohen, Associate Professor of history and art history at George Mason University and Director of the Center for History and New Media
More information about OCLC annual awards and scholarships can be found at www.oclc.org/community/careerdevelopment.
About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 170 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat on the Web at www.worldcat.org. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.
July 8th, 2011
Special pricing brought to you by MCLS and OCLC is only good for a few more days! EasyBib Library Edition builds on the popular citation management service EasyBib.com, and adds features such as library branding, links to the library catalog, locations, hours and more.
Check out what Allie from Portland Community College has to say about EasyBib Library Edition and the benefits to their students and library: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ0j5kRPoTM
Allie’s testimonial is just the beginning! The six institutions that participated in the EasyBib Library Edition beta saw increased usage from their students—anywhere from 65 to 100 percent more.
For example, the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University saw a 90 percent increase in EasyBib usage with Library Edition enabled; the Ohio State University saw an 84 percent increase. OSU’s EasyBib site was used 10,651 times from Feb. 18th to March 14th compared to 5,787 times during the same period in 2010. Other beta sites report similar increases. Listen to an interview with beta testers at http://www.oclc.org/easybib/results/.
Your organization will receive a discount when five or more MCLS libraries purchase new subscriptions before July 15, 2011. For more information on the special incentive pricing or for a price quote, please contact OCLC at http://www.oclc.org/easybib/ordering/.
July 7th, 2011
Jay Jordan to retire as OCLC President and CEO
Jay Jordan will retire as President and CEO of OCLC Online Computer Library Center on June 30, 2012.
The announcement was made today by OCLC Board Chair Larry Alford at the OCLC President’s Luncheon during the Annual Conference of the American Library Association in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“Jay Jordan has informed the OCLC Board of Trustees of his desire to retire as President and CEO in June 2012,” said Mr. Alford. “Jay wanted to give us sufficient advance notice to provide time for a thorough search and a smooth transition for his successor. The Board is forming a search committee and is preparing to launch an international search for the fifth President and CEO of OCLC.”
“Jay Jordan has presided over a period of remarkable growth and innovation during his 13 years at OCLC,” said Mr. Alford. “Under his transformative leadership, OCLC has moved in new and exciting directions to fulfill its public purpose of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing the rate of rise of library costs.”
“Today is not a farewell,” said Mr. Alford. “We will recognize and celebrate Jay’s contributions to the cooperative in the coming year. In the meantime, it will be business as usual, and with Jay Jordan, that means full speed ahead.”
In his remarks at the OCLC President’s Luncheon, Mr. Jordan stated: “It has been an honor to serve the OCLC cooperative. OCLC is an exceptional organization with an active and committed membership and a dedicated staff. OCLC’s Founder Fred Kilgour was fond of saying that OCLC was like the first flight of the Wright Brothers—12 seconds off the ground. That was 40 years ago. Today, our new WMS services are just getting off the ground, and I look forward to handing off to my successor a strong organization with an exciting set of opportunities.”
According to Mr. Alford, the composition of the Search Committee will be announced in the near future.
OCLC has had four presidents since its founding in 1967:
- Frederick G. Kilgour (1967-1980)
- Rowland C. W. Brown (1980-1989)
- K. Wayne Smith (1989-1998)
- Jay Jordan (1998-)
Mr. Jordan, 68, became OCLC’s fourth President and CEO on May 8, 1998. Since then, the number of libraries participating in the OCLC cooperative has grown from 30,000 to more than 72,000. The number of participating institutions outside the U.S. has increased from 3,200 in 64 countries to 16,215 in 170 countries. At the same time, the OCLC cooperative has become global in its governance, with regional councils in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa sending delegates to a new Global Council.
Since 1998, the WorldCat bibliographic database has grown from 38 million records to more than 240 million, and the number of location listings attached to those records has increased from 668 million to more than 1.7 billion. In 2006, WorldCat became available to people everywhere on the Internet.
Under Mr. Jordan’s leadership, OCLC built a new technological platform, introduced new Web-scale services and created a library advocacy program. Here are highlights of OCLC’s accomplishments since 1998:
- OCLC Connexion cataloging service launched on new technological platform (2002)
- QuestionPoint virtual reference service (created with Library of Congress) launched (2002)
- OCLC began distributing CONTENTdm digital collection management software (2002)
- WebJunction online community for public libraries launched Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2003)
- OCLC launched advocacy program, published OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition (2003)
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Library of Congress and OCLC started development of Virtual International Authorities File that in 2011 will become an OCLC service (2003)
- OCLC Research made available at no charge an algorithm to convert bibliographic databases to the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model (2003)
- OCLC Online Service Center launched (2005)
- Worthington (Ohio) Libraries contributed 1 billionth holding to WorldCat (2005)
- WorldCat database becomes available to people everywhere on the Internet via WorldCat.org (2006)
- WorldCat Collection Analysis, Terminologies service, WorldCat Registry introduced (2006)
- WorldCat Local, which provides a single interface to a library’s collection, is introduced (2008)
- OCLC Developer Network created (2008)
- WorldCat became available on mobile devices (2009)
- WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway launched (2009)
- OCLC Web-scale Management Services began operation (2010)
Since 1998, OCLC has expanded its offerings through mergers and acquisitions and focused operations through divestitures:
- WLN merged with OCLC; the WLN union catalog merged with WorldCat; about 550 libraries in the Pacific Northwest and Canada became OCLC members (1999)
- In 1999, OCLC acquired Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) and divested it in 2004.
- RLG merged with OCLC; Research Library Partnership created (2006)
- OCLC acquired Openly Informatics (2006)
- OCLC Europe, the Middle East and Africa created through merger of PICA B.V. (The Netherlands) and the former OCLC office based in Birmingham, U.K. The new organization provides library management systems as well as OCLC services. (2002)
- OCLC acquired DiMeMa, Inc., developer of CONTENTdm digital collection management software (2006)
- OCLC acquired these library management systems: SISIS (2005); Fretwell-Downing Informatics (2005); Amlib (2008); BOND (2011)
- OCLC acquired EZproxy authentication and access software (2008)
- OCLC acquired NetLibrary e-book platform in 2002 and divested it in 2010
- In 2009, OCLC divested Preservation Service Center, which was acquired in 1990.
OCLC has also fostered strategic alliances with a number of organizations to make libraries and their collections more visible on the Internet, including HathiTrust, Google, Microsoft, OAIster and Yahoo!
July 6th, 2011
Don’t worry if you couldn’t make it to ALA this year. OCLC will be recapping some of the most popular events of the conference. Join OCLC online for these short sessions and catch up on the latest developments. Check your OCLC service Listservs for more!
OCLC Resource Sharing Virtual User Group Meeting
July 13, 2011
12:30pm – 1:30pm Eastern
Register now
Join the Revolution: Library Management at Web Scale
July 14, 2011
2:00pm – 3:30pm Eastern
Register now
July 5th, 2011
