Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (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 information costs". Founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog (OPAC) in the world.
History
Originally named the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC began in 1967 through a collaboration of Ohio university presidents, vice presidents, and library directors who wanted to create a cooperative, computerized network for Ohio libraries. The group first met on July 5, 1967 on the campus of The Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, to design the shared cataloging system. Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The plan was to merge the catalogs of Ohio libraries electronically through a computer network and database in order to streamline operations, control costs, and increase efficiency in library management. The goal of this network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the world's information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26, 1971. This was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide.
Bearing the cost
The cost of implementing OCLC in the late 1960s was extraordinarily high by today's standards. Computers cost millions of dollars and software was measured in KLOCS (thousands of lines of code). No history is complete without an explanation of from where this money came.
At the time, university libraries around the country were constructing central libraries and shutting down their branch librariesâ€"mathematics, biology, etc. The Ohio State University had an unusually large collection, spread out over a very large campus (there are currently 27 branch libraries), and an outside consulting company was hired to compare the cost of building a central library to creating an online catalog, which would alleviate the need for a central library (and make some of the faculty happier.) The consulting company's report said that the costs would be more or less the same, but that an online catalog offered the possibility of selling that service to other libraries for profit, and so the decision to create OCLC was made. The consulting company had in mind a commercial venture, and this may even have briefly happened for out-of-State libraries. The OCLC idea was already being tossed around, but this gave the State of Ohio the necessary funding justification.
Services
OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone.
OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCatâ€"the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog (OPAC) in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. The Open WorldCat program makes records of library-owned materials in OCLC's WorldCat database available to Web users on popular Internet search, bibliographic, and bookselling sites. In October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record.
Until August 2009, when it was sold to Backstage Library Works, OCLC owned a preservation microfilm and digitization operation called the OCLC Preservation Service Center, with its principal office in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Research
OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications. These publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organization's website.
- OCLC Publications â€" Research articles from various journals including, but not limited to, Code4Lib Journal, OCLC Research, Reference & User Services Quarterly, College & Research Libraries News, Art Libraries Journal, and National Education Association Newsletter. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, starting in 1970, are also available.
- Membership Reports â€" A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding.
- Newsletters â€" Current and archived newsletters for the library and archive community.
- Presentations â€" Presentations from both guest speakers and OCLC research from conferences, webcasts, and other events. The presentations are organized into five categories: Conference presentations, Dewey presentations, Distinguished Seminar Series, Guest presentations, and Research staff presentations.
Advocacy
Advocacy has been a part of OCLC's mission since its founding in 1967. OCLC staff members meet and work regularly with library leaders, information professionals, researchers, entrepreneurs, political leaders, trustees, students and patrons to advocate "advancing research, scholarship, education, community development, information access, and global cooperation."
OCLC's most recent advocacy campaign, "Geek the Library," highlights the vital role of public libraries in the current challenging environment. One goal of this community-based public awareness campaign is to increase local library support by encouraging the public to share what they 'geek', using the word as a verb. The idea is that every person has a passion that they 'geek' from modern art to chemical engineering, and that the library supports all of the passions in the community. The campaign, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, uses a strategy based on the findings of the 2008 OCLC report, "From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America."
Other past advocacy campaigns have focused on sharing the knowledge gained from library and information research. Such projects have included communities such as the Society of American Archivists, the Open Archives Initiative, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the International Organization for Standardization, the National Information Standards Organization, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Engineering Task Force, and Internet2. One of the most successful contributions to this effort was the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, "an open forum of libraries, archives, museums, technology organizations, and software companies who work together to develop interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models."
OCLC partnered with search engine providers in 2003 in order to advocate for libraries and share information across the broadest possible Internet landscape. Google, Yahoo!, and Ask.com have all collaborated with OCLC in order to make the WorldCat records searchable through those search engines.
Online database
OCLC has a database for cataloging and searching purposes which is used by librarians and the public. The current computer program, Connexion, was introduced in 2001, and its predecessor, OCLC Passport, was phased out in May 2005.
This database contains records in MAchine Readable Cataloging (MARC) format contributed by library catalogers worldwide who use OCLC as a cataloging tool. These MARC format records are then downloaded into the libraries' local catalog systems. This allows libraries to find and download records for materials to add to their local catalog without the lengthy process of cataloging each individually.
As of February 2007, the OCLC database contained over 1.1 billion cataloged items, and is the world's largest bibliographic database. Connexion is available to professional librarians as a computer program or on the web at connexion.oclc.org.
WorldCat is available to the public for searching via a web-based service called FirstSearch, as well as through the Open WorldCat program.
The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988. A browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications is also available; it is currently in beta form.
WebJunction is a division of OCLC funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provides training services to librarians.
The QuestionPoint reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users. This around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries.
Control numbers
OCLC assigns a unique control number (referred to as an "OCN" for "OCLC Control Number") to each new bibliographic record in the WorldCat. Numbers are assigned serially, and as of mid-2013 over a billion OCNs had been created. In September 2013, the OCLC declared these numbers to be in the public domain, removing a perceived barrier to widespread use of OCNs outside of OCLC itself. The control numbers link WorldCat's records to local library system records by providing a common reference key for a record across libraries.
OCNs are particularly useful as identifiers for books and other bibliographic materials that do not have ISBN numbers (e.g., books published before 1970). OCNs are used as identifiers often in Wikipedia and Wikidata. In October 2013, it was reported that out of 29,673 instances of Infobox Book in Wikipedia, "there were 23,304 ISBNs and 15,226 OCNs"; and regarding Wikidata: "of around 14 million Wikidata items, 28,741 were books. 5403 Wikidata items have an ISBN-13 associated with them, and 12,262 have OCNs."
Regional service providers
Regional service providers contract with OCLC to provide support and training for OCLC services. This chart represents only OCLC services.
Company acquisitions
OCLC acquired NetLibrary, the largest electronic content provider, in 2002 and sold it in 2010 to EBSCO Industries. OCLC owns 100% of the shares of OCLC PICA, a library automation systems and services company which has its headquarters in Leiden in the Netherlands and which was renamed "OCLC" at the end of 2007. In June 2006, the Research Libraries Group (RLG) was merged into OCLC. On January 11, 2008, OCLC announced that it had purchased EZproxy. It has also acquired OAIster. The process started in January 2009 and from 31 October 2009, OAIster records are freely available via WorldCat.org.
Criticism
OCLC has been criticized for monopolistic practices. In July 2010, the company was sued by SkyRiver, a rival startup, in an antitrust suit. Library automation company Innovative Interfaces joined SkyRiver in the suit. The suit was dropped in March 2013, however, following the acquisition of SkyRiver by Innovative Interfaces.
