History and Organization
– OCLC was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center.
– The organization was created through a collaboration of university presidents, vice presidents, and library directors in Ohio.
– The articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization were signed on July 5, 1967.
– Frederick G. Kilgour was hired as the first executive director.
– Kilgour and Ralph H. Parker proposed the shared cataloging system in a 1965 report.
– Between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio.
– In 1978, a new governance structure was established to allow institutions from other states to join.
– In 2002, the governance structure was modified again to include participation from outside the United States.
– OCLC established strategic partnerships with networks to expand services outside Ohio.
– In 2022, membership and governance expanded to include any institution with a subscription to qualifying OCLC products.
Presidents
– Frederick G. Kilgour served as the president of OCLC from 1967 to 1980.
– Rowland C.W. Brown was president from 1980 to 1989.
– K. Wayne Smith served as president from 1989 to 1998.
– Jay Jordan was president from 1998 to 2013.
– Skip Prichard has been the president since 2013.
Services
– OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract, and full-text information to anyone.
– WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog, is the largest online public access catalog in the world.
– OCLC acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System.
– OCLC owned a preservation microfilm and digitization operation called the OCLC Preservation Service Center.
– QuestionPoint, a reference service, was acquired by Springshare from OCLC in 2019.
Research and Publications
– OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for over 30 years.
– Research outcomes are published through various publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations.
– Publications are available on the OCLC website, with archived resources dating back to 1970.
– Membership Reports provide significant reports on library-related topics.
– OCLC also offers newsletters and presentations from conferences and events.
Advocacy
– OCLC has been advocating for research, education, information access, and global cooperation since its founding in 1967.
– OCLC collaborates with library leaders, information professionals, researchers, and political leaders to advance its advocacy efforts.
– WebJunction, a division of OCLC, provides training services to librarians and is funded by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
– OCLC partnered with search engine providers like Google, Yahoo!, and Ask.com to make WorldCat records searchable through those search engines.
– OCLC’s advocacy campaign, Geek the Library, highlights the role of public libraries and is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)
