“We at OCLC are honored to receive this prestigious recognition from the professional IT community,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. “OCLC and our members are proud to be leading innovation for libraries. This recognition underscores not only the technological achievements of OCLC staff, but speaks to WorldShare’s growing adoption by the international library community.”

OCLC WorldShare Management Services introduces a cloud-based library management system that helps to unify and simplify library workflows. WorldShare Management Services enable libraries to share infrastructure costs and resources, as well as collaborate in ways that free them from the restrictions of local hardware and software. And libraries using WorldShare Management Services find that they are able to reduce the time needed for traditional tasks and free staff time for higher-priority services.

OCLC WorldShare Management Services were released for general availability July 1, 2011. There are currently more than 35 libraries using OCLC WorldShare Management Services, and more than 180 libraries worldwide have committed to the new service.

"This recognition is a tribute to the libraries and library staff members who have worked closely with OCLC staff to develop and produce a service that is changing the way libraries work," said Andrew Pace, OCLC Executive Director of Networked Library Services, who accepted the award on behalf of the OCLC cooperative. "This award is really for libraries."

OCLC WorldShare Management Services were formerly known as Webscale Management Services. The name was changed in December 2011 following launch of the new OCLC WorldShare Platform, and a rebranding of the services.

Speakers at the TechColumbus Innovation Awards event included Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee, and Les Wexner, Limited Brands Founder, Chairman and CEO.

The TechColumbus Innovation Awards celebrate the spirit of innovation by recognizing outstanding technology achievements in central Ohio. This prestigious evening showcases the region’s advancements and promising future in technology. For more information, visit www.techcolumbusinnovationawards.org.

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. 

As library investments and patron demands for e-resources continue to grow, libraries need to effectively manage these resources alongside their print materials. OCLC has responded to this change through a strategy that includes adding licensed and open access content to WorldCat, building the knowledge base for e-resources, enhancing resource sharing to allow the sharing of electronic articles, and introducing an entire suite of new services for electronic materials. That suite includes link resolving, acquisitions, and a license manager for subscription, access, license, vendor and rights management.

The advisory council is advising OCLC on that strategy, and on refining a clear message around that strategy. The council is also exploring new ways the cooperative can help to maximize exposure of electronic collections and the same time reduce the total cost of acquiring, managing and exposing electronic collections.

Members of the E-resource Advisory Council are:

• Regine Becher, User Services Project Manager, Conservation and Collection Care Manager, Bavarian State Library
• Maria Collins, Associate Head, Content Acquisitions and Licensing, North Carolina State University
• Jennifer Kuehn, Interim Head, Collection Development, The Ohio State University
• Anne Prestamo, Associate Dean for Collection and Technology Services, Oklahoma State University
• Tim Rogers, Executive Director, NC LIVE
• Dr. Hildegard Schäffler, Head of Serials and Electronic Media, Bavarian State Library
• Gregg Silvis, Librarian and Assistant Director for Library Computing Systems, University of Delaware
• Bonnie Tijerina, Assistant Director for Collection Services, Claremont Colleges
• Holly Tomren, Head, Metadata Services, Drexel University Libraries
• Stefanie Wittenbach, University Librarian, Texas A&M University--San Antonio
• Ted Fons, Executive Director, Data Services, OCLC, ex officio
• Andrew Pace, Executive Director, Networked Library Services, OCLC, ex officio

"Serving on the E-resource Advisory Council has been useful for me to get a better understanding of OCLC's vision of how emerging services will be able to benefit library workflows," said Jennifer Kuehn, Interim Head, Collection Development, The Ohio State University, and council member.

"OCLC is fortunate to work with a group of recognized thought leaders dedicated to helping libraries face an issue of critical importance to libraries," said Ted Fons, Executive Director, Data Services & WorldCat Quality. "The E-resource Advisory Council provides an excellent opportunity for OCLC staff to articulate our vision and to listen carefully to the profession’s leaders. The Council is an enormous asset to the cooperative as we work together to anticipate new needs in e-resource management."

The E-resource Advisory Council is planning to meet next during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Dallas, Texas.

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.

The University of Delaware Library will implement OCLC WorldShare Management Services, including the OCLC WorldShare License Manager, by the summer of 2013. The new “cloud-based” system will increase effectiveness and better utilize the Library’s vast resources, according to the University.

In 2008, the Library was one of the first institutions to implement WorldCat Local, OCLC’s Webscale discovery and delivery service. Since then, 29 ARL libraries have implemented WorldCat Local.

"OCLC has a long and distinguished history of supporting libraries in their role of bringing information to users," said Susan Brynteson, Vice Provost and May Morris Director of Libraries, who has been involved with the OCLC cooperative for many years. "The University of Delaware Library is delighted to be at the forefront in this next-generation of library services."

"OCLC's Webscale solution represents transformative change," said Gregg A. Silvis, Assistant Director for Library Computing Systems, University of Delaware. "Libraries have been working toward this type of solution for years. Taking routine library functions to the cloud will reduce duplication of loading records locally, and eliminates the need for maintaining local systems. In addition, as the first academic research library in the U.S. to implement OCLC WorldShare Management Services, the Library is glad to have the opportunity to develop these services to help meet the needs of other research libraries."

Tom Apple, Provost of the University of Delaware, stated, "The implementation of WorldShare Management Services demonstrates the commitment of the Library to provide first-rate research services to the faculty and students of the University of Delaware."

The University of Delaware Library will have an improved means for getting users to resources of all types and formats, according to Silvis. "WorldShare Management Services will provide the Library the opportunity to conduct careful analysis of our workflows across the library."

"We at OCLC greatly appreciate the University of Delaware’s willingness to work with the OCLC cooperative in innovative ways that advance research, scholarship and education," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "We look forward to working with the staff of this important research library in implementing a new cooperative model that will benefit students, faculty and librarians."

Andrew Pace, OCLC Executive Director of Networked Library Services, explained that the cooperative works collaboratively with the membership to ensure that services have meaning to and impact on the library community. "The University of Delaware Library will be invaluable in helping OCLC shape and enhance WorldShare Management Services."

Libraries using OCLC WorldShare Management Services lower the total cost of ownership for their library’s management and free staff time for higher-priority services. These services provide a Web-based environment that streamlines cataloging, acquisitions, license management and circulation. OCLC WorldShare Management Services enable libraries to share infrastructure costs and resources, as well as collaborate in ways that free them from the restrictions of local hardware and software.

In 2010, OCLC announced that it was making OCLC WorldShare Management Services available to a group of early adopters. OCLC WorldShare Management Services was released for general availability July 1, 2011. There are currently 33 libraries using OCLC WorldShare Management Services; and 171 libraries worldwide have committed to the new service.

More about OCLC WorldShare Management Services can be found on the OCLC website.

About the University of Delaware
Tracing its heritage back to 1743, the University of Delaware is a state-assisted, privately controlled institution with an enrollment of more than 16,000 undergraduates, 3,500 graduate student and 1,000 professional and continuing study students. The University offers degrees in a broad range of disciplines across seven colleges, and is a land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant institution. The University is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of teaching as a research university with very high research activity—a designation accorded fewer than three percent of U.S. colleges and universities.

The Hugh M. Morris Library on the Newark campus of the University of Delaware offers access to the Library’s collection of 2.8 million print volumes, 42,000 serials and more than 310 databases offered to 21,000 students. For Library hours call 302-831-BOOK or check the Library website at www.udel.edu/library.

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.

New features added to EZproxy 5.5 include even more support for Shibboleth, including the following:

• Shibboleth 2.3's default settings for IdPs are now compatible with EZproxy.
• The NameIdentifier (non-persistent ID) is now exposed for EZproxy's Shibboleth implementation through the expression variable auth:nameid.
• HTTP POST data can now be in excess of 64 k bytes for Shibboleth. Other HTTP POST data remains limited to 64k bytes.
• Shibboleth 1.3 authentication no longer creates the "SAMLResponse no encrypted Assertion elements" message to the messages.txt file unnecessarily.
• Shibboleth authentication now successful for institutions in the UK Access Federation, instead of logging potential message "SAML received assertion without a status of success, denying access."
• In cases where XDebug directive is used or if the -D command line argument is used and there is no "shibuser.txt" file, Shibboleth processing will no longer be disabled.

General bug fixes:

• The string concatenation operator is interpreted as a character belonging to the neighboring textual constant rather than as a concatenation operator for the following namespaces.
  
     auth:, group:, http:, cookie:

  This longstanding behavior will be fixed in 5.5.x for only the following namespaces.
  
     login:, env:, ParseName:, session:, db:, re:

  If you see this problem, the workaround is to insert a space around the concatenation operator. For example, this syntax works:
  
     UserFile("groups/" . login:instNumber.".txt")

  While this syntax does not: 
  
     UserFile("groups/".login:instNumber.".txt")
• Removed extraneous messages in the messages.txt file about "License Validation."
• Long lines greater than (approximately) 8192 characters written to messages.txt are now accepted.
• The EZproxy "stopall" command line argument will stop all processes named "ezproxy". It will then remove the ".ipc" and ".lck" files for the EZproxy directory from which the executable was run. The ".ipc" and ".lck" files for other execution directories are left unchanged.  This may require that you manually remove them from those directories.
• A number of additional security issues were also addressed in this release.

Note about versions

EZproxy V5.5 is the last release to support Solaris SPARC V8. The next release in Spring 2012 will be the last release to support Solaris SPARC V10. Support for Solaris Intel versions remains unchanged.

We encourage you to upgrade to EZproxy 5.5 to stay current with the latest features. Please review the enhancements page and upgrade at your earliest convenience.

EZproxy Hosted service is available

A hosted version of EZproxy is available. Libraries who subscribe to the hosted version are automatically and seamlessly upgraded with each new release of the service. They also enjoy 24 x 7 x 365 support for off-site authentication of electronic content with no servers or IT infrastructure required. The EZproxy hosted version is currently available in the US, and is planned for wider availability going forward.

Get more details and a full list of changes ››

Upgrade to EZproxy 5.5 ››

OCLC is launching the OCLC WorldShare Platform, which will enable library developers, partners and other organizations to create, configure and share a wide range of applications that deliver new functionality and value for libraries and their users.

OCLC will also deploy data centers around the world in support of OCLC WorldShare and other services. The first data center outside the United States will be implemented this week in the United Kingdom. Additional data centers will be deployed in continental Europe, Australia and Canada in the coming year.

“OCLC’s mission and public purpose are clearly aligned with the concept of Webscale,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. “We have been providing infrastructure and services that have enabled members to build efficiencies in the management of libraries, and to increase the visibility and impact of their collections in compelling user environments on the Web. To date, this work has been significant. Now we see a need to provide more of those connective elements, the services and systems that will allow libraries to leverage even more of their activities and data together, at Webscale.”

The OCLC WorldShare Platform facilitates collaboration and app-sharing across the library community, so that libraries can combine library-built applications, partner-built applications and OCLC-built applications. This enables the benefits of each single solution to be shared broadly throughout the library community.

In the coming weeks, participants from platform pilot libraries will work with members of the OCLC Developer Network to help create and build new applications to populate the OCLC WorldShare App Gallery, where users will see available apps and install them into current work environments. Developers can showcase their creativity, partners can create add-on functionality and library staff can find practical, everyday solutions to streamline and enhance their workflows.

The first services built on this new technical infrastructure are Webscale Management Services, which have been rebranded as OCLC WorldShare Management Services, and include circulation, acquisitions and license management applications. Today, more than 30 libraries are already using OCLC WorldShare Management Services, and more than 150 libraries worldwide have committed to the new service since September 2010.

Over time, OCLC will bring together additional OCLC services and applications under the OCLC WorldShare name, including resource sharing, consortial borrowing, metadata management and additional applications. OCLC’s currently deployed library management solutions will continue to be maintained and enhanced in line with libraries’ ongoing requirements under their current brand names.

WorldCat will continue to serve as the name for shared data, including registries and the knowledge base, as well as discovery services such as WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local.

There are many examples of organizations contributing to the broader Webscale information environment. Some, like HathiTrust, JSTOR and Europeana, are most recognizable to libraries and library users. Others, such as Google and Amazon, are global services familiar to all Web users. These services, and many others, are all part of the information environment users navigate every day—a Webscale environment.

OCLC is committed to working with libraries to expand the scope and type of partnerships that will be critical for libraries to achieve Webscale.

“OCLC WorldShare provides a Web-based platform for collective innovation across shared services, integrated applications and streamlined library workflows,” said Mr. Jordan. “In combination with WorldCat, OCLC WorldShare will support the work of libraries of all types to collaborate in new, more efficient ways, reduce operating costs and provide greatly enhanced user experiences.”

Visit the OCLC website for more details about OCLC WorldShare.

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 over 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.

Tad Mindeman, Covenant College, addresses OCLC's Global Council

On November 9, 2011, Tad Mindeman, Director of Library Services at Kresge Memorial Library at Covenant College, provided an update on his team’s implementation of Web-scale Management Services (WMS) during OCLC’s Global Council Meeting in Dublin, Ohio.

When Covenant considered a move to a new integrated library system, our perspective focused not on the gee-whiz aspect of the technology, but attempted to ascertain how a particular tool might best contribute to a better learning experience for our users. We knew that our users were becoming relatively frustrated by the organization and accessibility of our collections and resources, and we feared this could be inhibiting effective learning.
By early 2010, we believed that information management needed focused attention. Compounding this was a concern that the campus information technology department would not be able to support an increasingly technologically dependent library. I was determined to relieve these colleagues from having to maintain the hardware and software associated with traditional, server-based library systems. After surveying the product landscape over the next few months, we became convinced that OCLC’s WMS offered the most potential for us to make some radical improvements.

In summer 2010, we implemented WorldCat Local “quick start” to give us a sample of how this discovery tool would operate. The Covenant Library applied for WMS early adopter status in late September 2010. About four weeks later, we were accepted as an early adopter.

Little Covenant College was about to take a big plunge.

Implementing WMS and WorldCat Local
Our goal was to achieve full implementation of data to WMS and WorldCat Local by June 30, 2011. The plan to migrate to WMS began in late November 2010, when we received a project schedule and the news that we would be migrating with a cohort of eight early adopters beginning in early 2011. I was delighted to learn that most of the libraries in the cohort were similar in size and character. The entire group consisted of academic libraries, and two of the other seven were also distinctly Christian liberal arts schools, with whom we’ve had working relationships over the years.

The formal interaction among cohort members for training began in late February and concluded two months later. The cohort method provided a forum for peer support, shared expertise and mutual encouragement. Through phone conversations, webinars and a forum on the WMS User Support Center dedicated to our cohort, group members could compare change management strategies and anticipated workflow issues. OCLC staff led the cohort through weekly webinar training sessions, which were all recorded for convenient access later, and provided excellent one-on-one follow-up support. I truly admire the patience and flexibility of our OCLC WMS implementation team.

As part of the training, OCLC staff asked that institutions share with the entire group how WMS might change our internal workflows, promote new external collaboration, or contribute to our overall effectiveness. Taking the time to think about these larger issues instead of remaining fixated on migration minutiae was worth the time and effort.
The cohort approach promoted productive partnerships among group members and with OCLC staff, and allowed us to see the similarities and differences inherent in our libraries. It was nice knowing the group’s collective expertise was easily available for consultation. Using the cohort approach in migration provided a rich opportunity to enhance inter-institutional cooperation.

Going “live” with WMS
On April 27, 2011, Covenant successfully implemented WMS and WorldCat Local. The migration process was amazingly simple and straightforward. Because we had already completed a batchload of our bibliographic database when we installed WorldCat Local “quick start,” that saved about three weeks and allowed us to go live with WMS earlier than anticipated. Covenant College became the second member from within our cohort to implement WMS, the first institution in the state of Georgia to do so, and the eleventh library worldwide.

Implementing change in any organizational setting is almost always stressful. Our staff’s response to the move to WMS has run the gamut, from unbridled joy to dumbfounded confusion. And this all occurred after we had carefully counted the cost and emotionally prepared for the impending change. I can’t imagine working with a more conscientious, gifted and servant-minded team of folks, yet being an early adopter for an evolving product was difficult. We all learned to flex, to think and to react creatively.

During the past six months, several Covenant library staff members carefully tested and assessed various WMS functions, and then communicated their findings to OCLC staff. It has been rewarding for us to realize that a small liberal arts college has functioned as a real partner in the development of this revolutionary product. We sincerely thank OCLC for the opportunity to work together and for taking our input and feedback seriously.

The impact of WMS and WorldCat Local
We’ve been using WMS for six months. Eliminating traditional tasks associated with copy cataloging has increased the productivity of our cataloger (we have only one) by 44 percent for the same time period in 2010. By reducing the time needed to perform copy cataloging, she is now able to perform more original cataloging and will contribute her expertise to a new project, organizing and describing local digital collections.

WorldCat Local has increased our interlibrary loan activity by 54 percent over the same time period in 2010. As more institutions are exposed to our holdings through WorldCat, we are seeing a decrease in the difference between the number of items received and those provided to other institutions. In the near future, we are projecting a continued rise in the demand for interlibrary loan services.

We know for at least the next three years, WMS will dramatically reduce the total cost of operations associated with our integrated library system. Beyond that, we don’t anticipate the cost savings declining. And the cost calculations look even brighter when one considers that our monthly OCLC subscription includes WorldCat Local. Purchasing a new integrated library system and discovery tool separately from other vendors would not have been financially possible for Covenant.

Our future with WMS
We have seen major improvements in the WMS product over the last six months. We dream of the day when not only will we have all of the apps and functional capabilities to manipulate our own data in any way that we choose, but also have the opportunity to collaborate with other institutions in significant new ways.

Many academic libraries are facing the same challenges, and are actively searching for solutions. Over the last 10 months as I have visited with other library administrators about WMS, and I’ve learned that libraries are now prepared to take their existing culture of cooperation to new radical levels. Thanks to tools like WMS and WorldCat Local, libraries can now envision new group-oriented ventures to better steward limited resources, maximize resource sharing opportunities and explore revolutionary ideas in collaborative collection development. These tools allow us to manage information in creative new ways that would have seemed impossible just a few short years ago.

Covenant College took a calculated risk to take an active role in realizing Web scale. In our community, the library staff seeks to contribute to positive learning outcomes by attempting to mirror the high-touch mentoring approach used by our teaching faculty in the classroom. We have to be convinced that each tool we select will assist us in fulfilling our ultimate mission, and will support our distinctive philosophical framework. We believe that WMS meets these qualifications. And although the journey as an early adopter was challenging at times, we have great expectations for WMS and have fully embraced it as a partner as we charge ahead through the 21st century.

Covenant College is located on Lookout Mountain, Georgia, just a few minutes south of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The school is a private, co-ed, faith-based, intentionally Christian institution, emphasizing the liberal arts and embracing a Protestant Reformed heritage. Covenant College enrolls about 1,100 students from 43 states and 20 countries. Its library has only three professional and four paraprofessional library staff members. With a collection consisting of about 80,000 print volumes, over 95,000 e-books, about 200 electronic databases and almost 250,000 total bibliographic records in the catalog. Because Covenant has no student center, the library serves as a destination spot for students to socialize and study. On average, 13,000 people enter the library monthly.

“WMS has been a very positive change for all of us,” said Dr. Lynn Futch, Dean for Library Services, Ogeechee Technical College, the first technical college to go live with WMS. “Our students love it. Instead of looking at a long set of instructions, students can simply type what they’re looking for in a single search box in WorldCat Local. Students are also able to create and maintain their own accounts, which is something they had not been able to do in the past.”

“The best part for me as a librarian is that WMS has made it possible for us to streamline processes to get books on shelves and into students’ hands. What used to take a couple of days to accomplish can now be done in a couple of hours. WMS works like it was built with libraries and librarians in mind,” said Dr. Futch.

Ogeechee Technical College selected WMS in April as an early adopter of OCLC Web-scale Management Services. Early adopter libraries worked with OCLC staff through planning and testing of the new cloud-based service for the benefit of the entire OCLC cooperative. Libraries worldwide are collaborating to create a shared future through the OCLC Web-scale services. See video presentations from OCLC members describing their experiences with WMS on the website.

“Excellent support and awesome training made us feel very prepared to make the move to WMS,” said Dr. Futch. “A part-time library assistant said to me the other day, ‘One screen—just one screen, and I can do everything I need to do.’”

Ogeechee Technical College is a public institution of higher education that contributes to the economic, educational, and community development of its three-county service area of Bulloch, Evans, and Screven counties in Georgia.

Mohave Community College (MCC), which selected WMS in July, serves more than 13,000 students in the northwest portion of Arizona and neighboring communities in California, Nevada and Utah.

According to MCC’s director of library services, OCLC Web-scale Management Services will help to ensure that all Mohave Community College students—on campus and those on the Distance Education campus—have better access to all types of library materials—electronic, print, and digital formats.

“It’s very important that our students are able to search in WorldCat Local (the discovery tool for OCLC WMS) to access all types of materials, including electronic databases,” said Claudia Timmann, Director of Library Services. “If we do not have a particular item in the general collection, students need to know that they can request it through the interlibrary loan process. With WMS and WorldCat Local, MCC students will not have to keep digging for the information they need—it will be at their fingertips.”

Mohave Community College strives to meet the growing workforce needs of regional business and industry and to provide development and training opportunities for the area of small business development. The College offers programs that provide skills, training and specialized education that gives students rewarding careers, including the academic foundation to continue their education. More about Mohave Community College can be found at www.mohave.edu.

Libraries using Web-scale Management Services will lower the total cost of ownership for their library’s management and free staff time for higher-priority services. As more institutions migrate to WMS, libraries will be able to share data, applications and workflow improvements with peer institutions, end users and partners.

There are currently 30 libraries using OCLC Web-scale Management Services; and 151 libraries worldwide have committed to the new service. OCLC Web-scale Management Services was released for general availability July 1, 2011.

More about OCLC Web-scale Management Services can be found on the OCLC 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.

The journey leading up to this critical point began in June 2009, when Larry Haight, Director of Library Services, and Eric Wheeler, Reader and Digital Services Librarian, questioned the reliability of their existing server, which was then seven years old. When they investigated costs to replace it, they realized that two-thirds of their costs were for services.

"Prior to becoming a WMS early adopter, we didn't rush the process," said Larry. "We had been watching the progress that OCLC had been making with WMS—and it simply came down to significant cost-savings and features. We presented our case to all of the appropriate groups at our university, all of which agreed with our assessment: WMS was the way to go.

Located in Redding, California, Simpson University is a private Christian university offering undergraduate, graduate and teaching credential programs. With just over 1,300 students, the library owns 150,000 titles and has two full-time librarians, three part-time support staffers, and student workers.
 
“WMS had features that many integrated library systems couldn’t offer,” continued Larry, “such as federated live searching, social media capabilities like user-generated lists and individual user accounts. And, WMS offered targeted searches of items available through our local network as well as worldwide searches.”  

Along with the university’s ILS changes, Simpson was also in the process of migrating to a different Web platform supporting extra catalog functions. At one time, these needs were served by Simpson’s prior ILS, but like the old catalog, librarians were increasingly convinced that the platform no longer served their Web needs. In coordination with the library’s WMS project, the digital services department engaged in a project to integrate this new platform with WorldCat Local functionality.

Throughout the migration process, again Larry emphasized that they did not rush the process. With a small staff of employees, it was important that they maintain the level of customer service that students expected of them. In February 2010, they sent MARC records to OCLC for a batchload reclamation project, which revealed some issues with their control numbers. Once their 001 line issues were resolved in March, they proceeded to implement WorldCat Local ‘quick start’ and Link Manager.
 
“In August 2010, we went live with our new library Web page,” said Larry, “which provided users with two search options: one using WorldCat Local ‘quick start’ and the other using our ‘classic’ catalog. We wanted to transition our users over a nine-month period. Then in October, we worked with the university IT team to migrate to OCLC’s EZproxy for streamlined authentication.

“Just a few short weeks later, on December 13, our server crashed. We were on the phone with OCLC immediately and went live with WorldCat Local via WMS within one hour. Throughout the remainder of the semester, we added Knowledge Base and went live with WMS’ Circulation and Acquisition modules.”

“Overall, we are very pleased with the progression of events. But if we had to do it all over again, we may have done things a little differently,” suggested Eric. “We probably would consider reducing the overlap time between our former ILS and the new system. And we could have been better early adopters. By engaging more in the community and self-service resources OCLC has provided, we could have publicized our internal discussions with each other and OCLC and thus contributed more in terms of helping to shape this new cooperative service.”

“We have developed good relationships with folks at OCLC, which has allowed us to better direct any questions we might have to the appropriate person,” Larry added. “And, having frequent online user group sessions with other early adopters and attending training webinars—these have allowed us to learn from others as well as share what we have learned.

“There is no doubt that there are great benefits to cooperation. For our library to be a participant as a WMS early adopter and to make a contribution to the profession and to the development of WMS in a cloud-based environment has been very profound. As a collective group of libraries, we will save a lot of money as a direct result of our cooperation.” 

Larry Haight,
Director of Library Services,
Simpson University

Eric Wheeler,
Reader and Digital Services Librarian,
Simpson University

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.

See more information about Theodore Front Musical Literature, Inc.

See more information about WorldCat Selection

See a complete list of WorldCat Selection partners, both current and forthcoming

A number of issues have been reported and resolved with the EZproxy 5.4.1 release, available now. Fixes with EZproxy 5.4.1 include the following:

• The restart function now correctly restarts EZproxy on Windows platforms.
• The IPC file (named ezproxy.ipc) is now being created on Windows platforms. This resolves the possibility of multiple instances of EZproxy being started on a server out of the same directory.
• Shibboleth with groups is now completing authentication instead of being presented with logup.htm.
• Fixed: The limit on number of includeFile entries was inadvertently set much smaller in V5.4. The limits set in V5.4.1 are 4096 include files allowed at a depth of up to 64 nested includes - include files with another include statement.
• Changed: If EZproxy is restarted and an IPC file exists, EZproxy will now issue a message suggesting you can delete this file if you know EZproxy isn't currently running. Before this change, EZproxy would not start or issue a related message.

Issues anticipated to be fixed in EZproxy 5.5 release later this year:

• The string concatenation operator is interpreted as a character belonging to the neighboring textual constant rather than as a concatenation operator. If you see this problem, the workaround is to insert a space around the operator. For example, this syntax:
  
  

  UserFile("groups/" . login:instNumber.".txt")

  
  works, while
  
  

  UserFile("groups/".login:instNumber.".txt")

  
  does not.
• When users authenticate using Shibboleth 1.3, each authentication results in the message: "SAMLResponse no encrypted Assertion elements" being written to the messages.txt file. This message can be ignored and will be removed.
• EZproxy does not work Shibboleth IdP version 2.3 (on any of our supported Operating Systems). We understand what the issue is and are implementing a change to resolve this issue.

Other notes:

• Some sites are reporting Shibboleth authentication was not working with EZproxy V5.3 on the Solaris operating system. We have verified the Solaris version of EZproxy V5.4.1 works with our test IdP.  Please note the issue about Shibboleth IdP V2.3 above applies to the Solaris version of EZproxy too.
• Message "SAML received assertion without a status of success, denying access" logged with a failure to authenticate with Shibboleth. This issue has existed since V5.1d and has been reported with institutions in the UK Access federation. OCLC is currently researching this issue and will either issue an update to EZproxy or describe a configuration method to resolve this problem shortly.

We encourage you to upgrade to EZproxy 5.4 .1 to stay current with the latest features. Please review the enhancements page and upgrade at your earliest convenience.

EZproxy Hosted service is now available

A hosted version of EZproxy is now available. Libraries who subscribe to the hosted version are automatically and seamlessly upgraded with each new release of the service. They also enjoy 24 x 7 x 365 support for off-site authentication of electronic content with no servers or IT infrastructure required. The EZproxy hosted version is currently available in the US, and is planned for wider availability going forward.

Get more details and view a full list of changes ››

Upgrade to EZproxy 5.4.1 ››

Send a message to EZproxy [AT] oclc.org to request a quotation on the hosted service for your institution, and plan to attend the next EZproxy Webinar, scheduled for 17 August 2011, to get all your questions answered about the 5.4 release and how the hosted version could work for your library.

Limit to peer-reviewed content

A peer-reviewed limiter has been added to the service in response to user requests. The new limiter lets users refine searches and search results to peer-reviewed articles, e-articles, journals and e-journals in databases accessible through the WorldCat Local central index with the exception of WorldCat. The limiter will be added to WorldCat as a future enhancement.

Users can limit to peer-reviewed using the new Popular Limits section of the Advanced search screen or they can refine search results by the peer-reviewed facet under the Article format and under Content on the WorldCat Local interface.

Limit to peer-reviewed content

An item's peer-reviewed status is determined through the xISSN service, an OCLC API which harvests data including peer-reviewed status from approximately 60 sources.

View a list of the sources and the services ››

Search of local bibliographic data

Local data such as local subject headings, uniform titles and notes is now searchable in WorldCat Local. Since February, 2011, WorldCat Local libraries have been able to add their local data to the service through OCLC Batchload, and this rich locally-created content began to display in the interface in May. This additional data complements the full bibliographic data from the WorldCat database already available in the service and gives users more access points to their libraries' resources.

When a library adds its local data to a WorldCat Local site, it is available only to users of that site, and will not display to other WorldCat Local library sites.

An example of a search of local bibliographic data

Details about providing access to local bibliographic data through WorldCat Local are provided in "Quick Reference: Local Bibliographic Data for WorldCat Local."