Looking Ahead: An Ambitious Agenda

In October 2005, we will complete the migration of OCLC services to our new technological platform, a journey that we began in 2000. Back then, we shared with member libraries a strategy that called for us not only to build a new technological platform, but also to extend the cooperative through new membership categories, introduce new services, transform WorldCat and, ultimately, weave libraries into the Web and the Web into libraries.

Since then, we have begun interweaving libraries and the Web through programs such as Open WorldCat, which links people using search engines such as Google and Yahoo! Search to library catalogs and holdings, and the Yahoo! Toolbar, which is a free, cobranded toolbar that provides one-click access to Open WorldCat.

We have revised our governance structure and introduced new services such as Connexion, QuestionPoint and 24/7, WebJunction, ILLiad, NetLibrary, CONTENTdm and other digitization/preservation services. In short, we have accomplished much of what we said would do in our 2000 strategic plan.

Now, we are developing an ambitious agenda for the future that builds on our new platform and our investment. Our updated plan is a result of an ongoing process that involves consulting with and listening to the Board of Trustees, Members Council, regional service providers, advisory committees, individual libraries and users, and OCLC staff.

Let me share with you our key objectives for 2006 and beyond, and projects that support these objectives.

Become as good at helping libraries manage digital collections as we have been at helping them manage print collections.

• Create in WorldCat and the OCLC PICA GGC Catalogue a knowledge base of serials available in electronic form and their holdings in libraries.

• Develop a link registry for maintaining links from within OCLC and OCLC PICA services to library OPACs and OpenURL resolvers.

• Launch OAI harvesting of metadata records.

• Support ingest of non-MARC 21 formats into WorldCat.

• Implement a terminology service to link WorldCat to authority files, DDC and other classification schemes, and thesauri.

Deliver OCLC and library services and collections at point of need.

• Expand Open WorldCat with enhanced services, additional partners and new funding models.

• Syndicate delivery of OCLC cataloging records to large materials providers.

• Make OCLC services available through Web services for integration into other environments and applications.

Become the premier e-content provider of choice for libraries, publishers, distributors and other organizations.

• Syndicate e-book delivery through additional channels.

• Add new types of e-content.

• Create seamless access to e-content.

Improve the way we deliver products and services.

• Discontinue transaction pricing and implement subscription pricing for interlibrary loan and cataloging services, thereby enabling libraries to streamline their workflows and take full advantage of OCLC services without worrying about transactions.

• Optimize effectiveness of distribution channels with U.S. regional service providers and distributors worldwide through improved coordination and communication, training, incentives and planning.

These key objectives comprise the major priorities in our development schedule for the foreseeable future. At the same time, we will continue to maintain and enhance our core services in cataloging, resource sharing and reference. Our investments these past five years are beginning to yield increasing benefits for libraries and their users. We must continue, however, to look ahead, anticipate environmental shifts and adapt our strategy in order to preserve the long-term viability of the cooperative and provide ever increasing value to libraries.

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