The CIPE consortium (Consorzio Interistituzionale per Progetti Elettronici – Interistitutional Consortium for Electronic Projects) was founded in 2007 with the objective to promote national and international cooperation, research, standardisation, training and development of services for the consortium members aimed at library innovation and efficiencies of scale. Participating in CIPE are the Universities of Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Modena and Reggio Emilia, Padua, Parma, Pisa, Sassari, Siena, Venice and the Polytechnic University of the Marche. Some items in these collections date back to the 15th century.

The agreement to load the records of these leading public Italian universities will make them discoverable through WorldCat.org on the Web. "We have always been aware of the many benefits that WorldCat visibility can give us, and they are in line with our strategy of international cooperation," said Laura Tallandini, CIPE President and President of the Padua University Library System. "Now, we can have our records batchloaded into WorldCat and still continue to use our current cataloguing system. So we decided it was a good time to add our records to WorldCat and share them through WorldCat.org. The Consortium is very proud to say that thanks to the agreement CIPE signed with OCLC, all other University libraries—even if they are not CIPE members—can batchload their data in WorldCat under similar terms."

Renato Tamburrini, CIPE Director, and the University of Siena Library Director Guido Badalamenti, who is also a CIPE Board member, said they strongly support the decision to add these records to WorldCat.

"Since academic research activity is going to be more and more international, we believe it is an added value to provide one resource—WorldCat—for all the information, besides the union catalogue in Italy," said Mr. Badalamenti. "After this batchload, Italian end-users will finally be able to find our library items, in addition to items from other libraries around the world, in one search, regardless of their infrastructure and location."

"We find the WorldCat utilities very useful," said Mr. Tamburrini. "We feel good about OCLC’s commitment to connecting libraries and people, and its ideology of sharing resources, which is the essence of CIPE."

"The addition of these records will almost quadruple the current Italian-language content and will enrich WorldCat with rare and precious materials from institutions that have been building collections for centuries," said Eric van Lubeek, Managing Director of OCLC Europe, Middle East and Africa. "Researchers and students around the world will benefit from access to these collections."

The records of the CIPE universities are in UNIMARC format and will first be converted by OCLC before batchloading is done for each university. Once the records are added to WorldCat, the consortium can take advantage of other OCLC services made available through WorldCat.

The agreement between CIPE and OCLC was facilitated by Ifnet Srl, OCLC’s distributor in Italy. "This is the most important agreement since the beginning of our collaboration in 1992," said Gabriele Lunati, Ifnet Managing Director.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a non-profit, 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, catalogue, 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.

WorldCat Local offers access to books, journals and databases from a variety of publishers and content providers from around the world; the digital collections of groups like HathiTrust and Google Books; open access materials, such as the OAIster collection; and the collective resources of libraries worldwide through WorldCat.
WorldCat Local is available as a stand-alone discovery and delivery service, and as part of OCLC WorldShare Management Services. Through WorldCat Local, users have access to more than 1,700 databases and collections, and more than 650 million articles.
OCLC recently signed agreements with the following content providers to add important new collections—including some searchable full text—to WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org and OCLC WorldShare Management Services:

• Alexander Street Press, based in the United States, brings together the skills of traditional publishing, librarianship, and software development to create quality electronic collections. Alexander Street Press will provide metadata and full text to centrally index 30 databases through WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org and OCLC WorldShare Management Services. A few of the databases included in the agreement are American Song, Contemporary World Music, and Alexander Street Literature.

• Brepols Publishers, based in Belgium, is an international academic publisher of works in the humanities. Brepols will be providing OCLC with books and journals, both metadata and full-text, for inclusion in WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
• Elsevier, based in the Netherlands, a leading global provider of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information products and services, will make the full text from Elsevier’s SciVerse ScienceDirect journals and e-books available to users of OCLC’s WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services. Metadata from the SciVerse ScienceDirect will also be exposed in WorldCat.org.
• IOP Publishing, based in the United Kingdom, provides publications through which leading-edge scientific research is distributed worldwide. IOP is part of the Institute of Physics, a leading scientific society promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all. IOP will provide journal metadata to OCLC for inclusion into WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
• Nordic Council of Ministers (Norden), based in Denmark, is a collaboration of countries involving Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the three autonomous areas, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands. Norden will be providing metadata to OCLC for dictionaries, educational material, image databases, maps and other online resources related to the Nordic Region and Nordic co-operation. This metadata will be included in WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
• The Philosophy Documentation Center, located in the United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing affordable access to materials in applied ethics, classics, philosophy, and religious studies. Its E-Collection (including POIESIS: Philosophy Online Serials) contains journals, book series, conference proceedings, and other publications in applied ethics, philosophy, religious studies, and related disciplines. This collection includes titles produced in cooperation with professional associations, research centers, and publishers in several countries. The Philosophy Documentation Center is providing metadata and full text to OCLC for inclusion in WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
• Rock’s Backpages, based in the United Kingdom, is the ultimate archive of music journalism, which includes thousands of articles from Aaliyah to ZZ Top, by the finest rock writers of the last 50 years. Rock’s Backpages will provide article level metadata to OCLC for inclusion into WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services. Free content will be made available through WorldCat.org.
• Royal Society of Chemistry's RSC Publishing division, based in the United Kingdom, provides a broad range of resources for the scientific community including Books/eBooks, databases, journals and magazines. With a significant increase in international contributions (over 50% growth in journal articles in 2011), RSC Publishing offers high impact content (average Impact Factor of 5.4) in chemical sciences; energy and environmental sciences; food science; medicinal chemistry and biomolecular sciences; and nano, polymers and materials science. RSC Publishing will be providing OCLC with eBook and journal article level metadata and full text for indexing purposes. The data will be included in all OCLC products and services including WorldCat, WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local and OCLC WorldShare Management Services.
• The Taylor & Francis Group, based in the United Kingdom, partners with researchers, scholarly societies, universities and libraries worldwide to bring knowledge to life. As one of the world’s leading publishers of scholarly journals, books, ebooks and reference works, Taylor & Francis content spans all areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Science and Technology. Taylor & Francis will be providing metadata for all of their journals and books. The data will be included in all OCLC products and services.
• Sabinet, based in South Africa, has been a leader in facilitating access to electronic information for more than 27 years. Sabinet has increased their partnership with OCLC to allow OCLC to centrally index their full text for the metadata currently in WorldCat Local for the SAE Publications.

New content recently added to the WorldCat Local central index includes:

Berkeley Electronic Press CAB eBooks CAB Reviews CAB Reviews Archive IEEE, now with full text IET Publications Database Inspec

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Marquis Who’s Who M.E. Sharpe eBooks M.E. Sharpe Journals Oxford Art Online Oxford Music Online Religious and Theological Abstracts U. S. Law Reviews and Journals

Vendor record collections now available in the WorldCat Local central index and to WorldCat Local "quick start" libraries:

• HeinOnline American Law Institute Library
• HeinOnline Bar Journals
• OECD iLibrary

OCLC continues to negotiate access to critical library content on behalf of the cooperative to ensure access to libraries’ most popular resources. A complete list of databases and collections available through WorldCat Local from these and other publishers is available online.
For more information, visit the WorldCat Local website.

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.

A discussion paper, Incorporating RDA practices into WorldCat, laying out potential policies and actions is now available for comment. Please send your comments on these proposed policies and actions, as well as your thoughts on any other possible policies in regard to bibliographic records and RDA, to rdapolicy@oclc.org by April 15, 2012.

OCLC welcomes online citation site WriteCite.com to its growing list of WorldCat.org traffic partner sites.

WriteCite.com is an Australia-based site that helps undergraduate and upper secondary high school students create automatic citations online. It was founded by a university lecturer in response to the growth of Internet-enabled and nontraditional information sources that still require referencing by today's students. Started in 2009, the site provides citations in APA, Harvard and MLA styles and features a free mobile version, iCite APA, that is available for Apple iOS and Android devices.

WriteCite provides a way to search the world's library collections via WorldCat, made possible through the OCLC WorldShare Platform. The WorldShare Platform gives flexible, open access to library data through APIs and Web Services, so that students can discover, cite and create lists for information in e-books, books, chapters, magazines, newspapers, websites, journals, films and more.

"Since we've implemented the WorldCat search and ability to find a local library," says founder and owner Michael Hargreaves, "we've seen a big increase in the amount of time people stay on the site. Our partnership with OCLC to include WorldCat searching and library-find has increased the functionality of the site. Our users benefit from the cooperative efforts of Australian and the world's libraries. And universities benefit from better-formed citations."

WriteCite.com is free for educational use and has been designed so that the form, search and preview panels can be "white label" implemented into a learning library's Web page without the WriteCite logo.

"We're so pleased that an Australian-based company can assist students worldwide," explains Chris Thewlis, Regional Manager for OCLC's Australian office. "With the WorldShare Platform now in place, it opens up additional partnership opportunities for locally created apps that help increase library visibility anywhere users are looking for quality, vetted information."

WriteCite.com offers the ability to cite books, advertising creative, electronic information, Internet resources, journals and reference materials. It is unique in online citation services, in that users view the citation format as they enter their information, so they learn how to reference materials as they go. It is available for both individual and institutional subscriptions and continues to be developed in Brisbane, Australia.

WriteCite.com is one of several automated citation applications that include library data from WorldCat, including EasyBib, BibMe and Citavi. There is also built-in functionality available on WorldCat.org that exports to popular citation software packages such as RefWorks, EndNote and EasyBib.

The WorldShare Platfom APIs are available to anyone interested in creating websites, mash-ups or mobile apps that include library data. An OCLC office in Melbourne supports Australia-based third-party sites like WriteCite.com to find worldwide scale through commercial partnership arrangements.

Sustainable Collection Services (SCS) makes use of the WorldCat Search API to provide decision-support for collection assessment, deselection, and shared print projects. The firm's data-driven services enable carefully-managed drawdown of low-use print monographs while supporting resource sharing and print archiving efforts.

The SCS service leverages WorldCat data, the largest aggregation of bibliographic data in the world, as a primary source for deselection metadata. Access to this data is enabled by the OCLC WorldShare Platform, which exposes OCLC's Web services and data for use and reuse by third party partners.

This strategic partnership reflects OCLC's commitment to provide broader access to the Platform environment and WorldCat data. Partners like SCS can take advantage of the same infrastructure that OCLC uses to build and maintain its own services, providing libraries with an extended range of application options that take advantage of the same core data.

The SCS service will complement current OCLC offerings to help libraries analyze their collections, joining WorldCat Collection Analysis and a wide range of reports that are currently available using the OCLC Stats.org tool.

"OCLC's work with Sustainable Collection Services illustrates the value of building partnerships in service to libraries using the OCLC WorldShare Platform," said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development. "OCLC considers all types of partnerships that add value to the library community. Working with WorldCat, Sustainable Collection Services is better equipped to make the right recommendations for libraries and their lending partners."

"WorldCat holdings data is central to a well-coordinated print management project," notes Rick Lugg, President of SCS. "Responsible deselection relies on knowledge of the collective collection, and WorldCat is the single best source for that information. OCLC has been enormously helpful during our first year of operation, streamlining access to library holdings through its WorldCat API. Our strategic partnership builds on that foundation and broadens the scope of our collaboration, enabling SCS to develop an innovative collection analytics application. My partners and I at SCS look forward to exploring the full potential of the OCLC WorldShare Platform."

Sustainable Collection Services was formed just over a year ago. In the first year of operation, it has worked with more than a dozen academic libraries and consortia across the country to consult on print management strategies, and to generate withdrawal and preservation candidate lists based on library-defined criteria.

About Sustainable Collection Services LLC
Sustainable Collection Services (SCS) provides tools and advice to support data-driven deselection of monographs. Founded in January 2011 by Rick Lugg and Ruth Fischer of R2 Consulting, along with partners Andy Breeding and Eric Redman, SCS focuses on collection analytics. The company's services enable libraries to analyze circulation and holdings data, and to generate actionable title lists for withdrawl, storage, preservation, and shared print archiving. (www.sustainablecollections.com)

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.org on the Web. For more information, visit the OCLC website.

Full-text searching is now available in WorldCat Local, OCLC's discovery-to-delivery service that offers users integrated access to more than 922 million items worldwide. This latest enhancement creates an even more powerful search experience, with the addition of searching words within full-text articles.

The new search functionality follows the addition of full-text content from IEEE to the WorldCat Local central index. The IEEE Publications full-text database provides a comprehensive collection of resources to support research on technology topics.

WorldCat Local users may search collections indexed in the WorldCat Local central index, based on agreements with content providers.  Searchable collections now include IEEE, BioOne and Emerald, and new content from additional sources will be added on an ongoing basis.

Library staff may set their default keyword search to a new "keyword plus full text" search. In addition, two new indexes, a "full text only" and a "keyword + full text" are available from the advanced search page for a WorldCat Local-implemented library. Libraries with WorldCat Local may enable the full-text search functionality within OCLC Service Configuration.

View a list of more than 1,700 databases and collections from IEEE and other publishers available through WorldCat Local ››

In the research that led to the publication of Online Catalogs: What End Users and Librarians Want library staff who use WorldCat ranked the need for increased accuracy in name and subject headings as a highly desired improvement. The report on WorldCat quality issued in September 2011 identified a project to control more headings in WorldCat as a priority during OCLC’s fiscal year 2012. The following describes this new controlling effort which will provide benefit to all users of WorldCat, regardless of which interface they use.

Current controlling functionality in Connexion. The controlling functionality currently available in the Connexion applications enables users to link authority records to headings in master WorldCat bibliographic records. Cataloger-initiated controlling functions facilitate automatic updating of headings in bibliographic records.

• Connexion users initiate matching headings in bibliographic records to established authority records.
• The system normalizes the headings in bibliographic records, matches them with authority records, and inserts the linked heading in the bibliographic record.

New stand-alone controlling software. OCLC is extending the Control All functionality by developing a stand-alone batch service that runs independently. The software evaluates all bibliographic records in WorldCat and controls headings as detailed below.

Records evaluated for processing. The software will evaluate the following bibliographic records in WorldCat for processing according to different time schedules:

• Master bibliographic records newly added to WorldCat contributed either through online applications or through batchload will be evaluated daily.
• Master bibliographic records changed and replaced in WorldCat will be evaluated on a pre-determined schedule.
• Existing master bibliographic records in WorldCat will be evaluated on a to-be-determined schedule and as capacity allows.

OCLC has begun processing records selected from among new and replaced records and will gradually increase the number of records processed each day over the next few weeks. We will announce when we begin processing existing records and will report periodically on progress.

Criteria for record selection. The software will select candidate bibliographic records for processing that contain the following:

• An 040 field with no ‡b present and at least one of the following controllable fields:

• 100, 110, 111, 130
• 600, 610, 611, 630, 650, 651, second indicator 0
• 655, second indicator 7, ‡2 lcgft
• 700, 710, 711, 730
• 800, 810, 811, 830

• An 040 field with ‡b present containing the value eng and at least one of the following controllable fields:

• 100, 110, 111, 130
• 600, 610, 611, 630, 650, 651, second indicator 0
• 655, second indicator 7, ‡2 lcgft
• 700, 710, 711, 730
• 800, 810, 811, 830

• An 040 field with ‡b present but containing a value not equal to eng and at least one of the following controllable fields:

• 600, 610, 611, 630, 650, 651, second indicator 0
• 655, second indicator 7, ‡2 lcgft

• A partially or fully controlled heading.

How the software works.
The software will not:

• Attempt to control unqualified personal names (personal name only that does not include ‡b, ‡c, ‡d, and/or ‡q).
• Control a heading to an undifferentiated authority record.
• Cause automated tag flips of any type.

The software will:

• Automatically expand dates for candidate personal name headings.
• Partially control series fields and automatically append ‡v.
• Maintain the links between non-Latin script headings and their Latin-script equivalents.

The software will also make the following adjustments as needed:

• Apply any appropriate punctuation changes.
• Attempt to control partially controlled headings.
• Uncontrol descriptive heading fields (1XX, 7XX and 8XX) if the value in field 040 in the bibliographic record is other than eng.
• Delete a geographic subdivision from a subject heading if the heading can be completely controlled and no element of the heading can be subdivided geographically.

The symbol “OCLCO” will be appended in ‡d of the 040 field in bibliographic records that are modified by the software.
If a bibliographic record is locked, the software will skip it and reevaluate it when the lock has been removed.
The new software supplements individual cataloging activity. As with the “Control All” headings function in Connexion, some circumstances prevent the software from controlling all headings in WorldCat records. The software cannot do the manual “Single Control” headings functions that catalogers can do in Connexion. The software cannot control non-qualified personal names, headings that have no exact match or that match only partially, headings that are mis-tagged, headings that contain typographical errors or other errors that require correction.

OCLC encourages catalogers working in WorldCat to continue using the control headings functions in Connexion when adding or upgrading records as you continue to share your cataloging expertise with the cooperative.

Designers & Books is a website devoted to publishing list of books that esteemed members of the design community identify as personally important, meaningful and formative—books that have shaped their values, their worldview and their ideas about design. The mission of the site, launched in late November 2011, is to foster conversations that will challenge students, stimulate emerging designers, energize established designers, and be of value and interest to all members of the design community.

The site profiles 87 participating designers—from architects and interior designers to product, graphic and car designers—to showcase what books have been most influential to each artist's creative process. Currently there are 1,124 books that have been selected. Once a reader indentifies a particular work on the site, Designers & Books uses the data in WorldCat via the WorldCat Search API and WorldCat Identities to provide library availability information and author profiles. A new book list is added to the site each week.

"From William Morris to Frank Lloyd Wright to Le Corbusier—there has always been a particularly special and robust relationship between designers and books; reading them, writing them, designing them, collecting them, learning from them and being inspired by them. We celebrate that relationship," explains site curator Steve Kroeter. "Because many of these materials are now out-of-print or out-of-reach for a design enthusiast or a student, we are pleased to connect people to nearby libraries through WorldCat, and to continue growing the content and conversations."

Designers & Books is one of many websites to include library data from WorldCat, including Google, Amazon, Alibris and others. The WorldCat Search API is available to anyone interested in creating websites, mash-ups or apps that include library data. Third party sites like Designers & Books use the WorldCat Search API through commercial partnership agreements.

Additions to the popular discovery and delivery service include the following new member-requested features:

A-Z list completes the integrated OpenURL resolution functionality

A new A-Z journal list feature now available in WorldCat Local gives library users even more ways to find the journal or journal article that they’re looking for. Users can now browse a library’s collections with an integrated A-Z listing of available e-journals, made possible by the WorldCat knowledge base. The A-Z list completes the OpenURL resolver functionality available for WorldCat Local libraries: inbound and outbound linking and the A-Z list are included at no additional charge to subscribers.

The new A-Z list functionality includes tabs to find articles, eJournals and eBooks. With this enhancement,
WorldCat Local now includes complete OpenURL resolution at no additional charge.

Full-text searching coming soon

Full-text searching functionality is coming soon to WorldCat Local. This new feature will evolve as new full-text databases are loaded into the central index.

Persistent facet selection

Now as you browse through results pages, the facets you initially select will stay selected until you do a new search or manually change them. This will save time for searchers who navigate from records to a results list using their browser's “back” button.

Boolean updated

Thanks to member feedback, Boolean operators now work only when used in all caps (AND, OR, NOT). Lowercase versions of these words have been added to the Common Word Exclusion list:

English: a an and (lowercase) are as at be but by for from had have he her his how in is it not (lowercase) of on or (lowercase) that the this to was which with you

French: de la le les des un une

German: der das dass du er sie es wer wie mit am im in aus auf ist sein wird ihr ihre ihres als von mit dich dir mich mir mein sein kein wird

Anchored phrase searches

If you want to search for an exact phrase in a specific index, you can now use an equals sign (=) in combination with an index label. For example, the query ti=gone with the wind now searches for the anchored phrase “gone with the wind” in the title (ti) index. This will retrieve records containing exactly this phrase and only this phrase in the fields/subfields that are indexed for title search.

For regular phrase searching, you may also continue to enclose search terms in double quotes when using an index label in combination with a colon (:). For example, the query ti:"gone with the wind” searches for the phrase “gone with the wind” occurring anywhere within the fields/subfields that are indexed for title search and will therefore match on records containing, for example,  “gone with the wind revisited” or “Margaret Mitchell’s gone with the wind letters.”

Content updates

New content is added to WorldCat Local on a regular basis. The central index now includes three new databases:

• Oxford Handbooks Online from Oxford University Press
• Oxford Scholarship Online from Oxford University Press
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts Database from the U.S. Department of Justice (publicly available)

Six additional databases from EBSCO are now available for searching via remote access:

• Criminal Justice Abstracts
• Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text
• Educational Administration Abstracts
• Family Studies Abstracts
• Historical Abstracts with Full Text
• SocINDEX with Full Text

WorldCat, the world's most comprehensive database of resources in libraries, currently includes 1.4 million records coded for Arabic language (ara) and more than 710,000 records containing true Arabic script. OCLC member libraries contribute to WorldCat to further access to the world’s information through library cooperation. Anyone can search WorldCat.org through the Web.

The Arabic Union Catalog, launched in November 2006, is an initiative of the King Abdulaziz Public Library. The AUC is a non-profit, library services organization dedicated to providing a cooperative space particularly for those libraries worldwide that collect, manage and disseminate materials written in the Arabic language. The union catalog itself is the first realization by an Arab organization to produce and make available a reliable source of high-quality, standardized bibliographic material in the Arabic language.

"This cooperation is the result of the perseverance and commitment of the King Abdulaziz Public Library and OCLC to work together," said Arthur Smith, OCLC's Director for the Middle East. "We are fortunate to benefit from the experience, the dedication and the knowledge of our partners in the Arab world. Making available the links to the Arab Union Catalog in WorldCat.org assists in exposing the resources of hundreds of Middle Eastern libraries to the worldwide community."

The General Secretary of the King Abdulaziz Public library, Faisal bin Abdulrahman bin Muammar, has reaffirmed the importance of making information about Arab and Islamic culture more accessible. The General Secretary emphasized the need to strengthen cooperation with international institutions, information providers and libraries throughout the world, and noted the vital role played by OCLC in serving Arab culture and Arab libraries.

"This is an exciting advance for researchers and scholars around the world," said Jay Jordan, President and Chief Executive Officer, OCLC. "We at OCLC are honored to work with the King Abdulaziz Public Library on this project of far-reaching importance."

The technical development and operational support of the AUC is the responsibility of Arabian Advanced Systems (AAS). Headquartered in Riyadh with branches in several Middle Eastern countries, AAS is the regional leader in computerized services for libraries. AAS has been OCLC's partner for technical assistance, marketing and sales since 1996. "We are privileged and honored to contribute to the realization of AUC, this valuable and truly cooperative service, serving the Arabic culture," commented A. Al-Abduljabbar, AAS Executive President.

About King Abdulaziz Public Library
Established in 1985, King Abdulaziz Public Library is a philanthropic institution, founded and supported by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, Chairman of its Board of Directors. The main goal of KAPL is to meet the different educational and information needs of its patrons, scholars, researchers, students, women and children. As one of KAPL main projects, the Arabic Union Catalog (AUC) is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service dedicated to create a cooperative space for all libraries with Arabic collections. It allows libraries to share their experience and download high quality bibliographic and authorities Arabic records.

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.

OCLC and IZUM will investigate forming a partnership to integrate core products and services from both organisations 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 organisations will also look into ways to distribute OCLC products and services in the nine countries.

"Convergence of synergies is always the best possible way to make progress," said Davor Sostaric, Director of IZUM. "This is especially true in development processes. I am sure we will all benefit from such a partnership. IZUM’s well-established services in the COBISS.Net countries combined with OCLC’s worldwide network of library services will be a great step forward for the whole region."

"IZUM has successfully supported library cooperation and provided library services in Eastern Europe for decades," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "Our mission and goals are similar. We look forward to working with IZUM and the libraries and systems they represent to facilitate library cooperation worldwide."

"We are delighted to reinforce our relationship with IZUM," said Eric van Lubeek, Managing Director of OCLC Europe, Middle East and Africa. "OCLC and IZUM libraries and their users will certainly benefit from such a partnership—in Europe, and around the world."

About IZUM
The Institute of Information Science (IZUM) is a public institution established by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia as an information infrastructural service for Slovenian science, culture and education. Along with other agents of information activities in the country, it ensures Slovenia an entrance to the streams of the modern world’s information society. This defines its mission; its functions are specified in the Foundation Act, passed by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. According to the Research and Development Act, it is defined as a public infrastructural institution and registered as a research organisation as well. According to the Librarianship Act, it is defined as a library information service in the COBISS.SI national bibliographic system. IZUM provides the same reference model of the COBISS to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia; all these systems are interconnected and thus represent the core of the COBISS.Net regional network.

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.