OCLC Members Council has made OCLC a better cooperative

The OCLC Members Council met at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio on May 17-19,2009. It was the 90th meeting of the Council since 1978. It was also the final meeting in the Council’s 31-year history as the OCLC cooperative goes forward in 2010 with a new governance structure comprising Regional Councils and a Global Council.

I attended my first meeting of the then Users Council in May 1998. Interestingly enough, the theme of that meeting was “Internationalize: The Value of OCLC Membership in a Global Library Community.”

Over the next decade, OCLC did indeed become more global. From 1998 to 2009, the number of participating libraries increased from 30,000 to 71,761, and the number of institutions participating outside the U.S. rose from 3,200 to 16,140. In 1998, there were two delegates on the Users Council from outside the U.S.: Ellen Hoffman, York University, Canada, and Ian Mowat, Edinburgh University, United Kingdom. Since then, the Council has indeed internationalized itself. This year, there were 16 delegates from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom. Thirty-two delegates from outside the U.S. have served on the Council since 1978.

Of course, the vast majority (525) of Users Council delegates have come from U.S. institutions. Elected by their regional networks or service centers, these delegates have represented libraries of all types and sizes. While they have brought many diverse viewpoints to Council’s discussions, they have been consistent on one issue, which is that the OCLC cooperative should be as inclusive as possible. That is a theme that runs throughout OCLC’s history, from the Ohio pioneers to the nationwide network of 1978 to the international OCLC of today. The more libraries and cultural heritage institutions in the OCLC network, the better.

The Members Council has had three main duties since 1978: elect six members of the 15-member OCLC Board of Trustees; provide OCLC with advice and counsel; and ratify changes to the OCLC Articles of Incorporation and Code of Regulations. They have consistently done their duty in all three areas.

The Members Council has elected 35 trustees since 1978, and six of those have gone on to serve as Chair of the Board of Trustees, including the current Chair, Larry Alford, Dean, University Libraries, Temple University. The Council has also provided OCLC with advice and counsel. It is no exaggeration to say that the Members Council has been the voice of the OCLC membership. Their deliberations have contributed significantly to OCLC’s strategic directions and provided valuable feedback on operations and policies. Delegates have also made recommendations that resulted in new OCLC services, such as ILL Fee Management in 1995. More recently, they urged OCLC to explore ways that WorldCat might be made more accessible to the general public and might be used as a local catalog. These notions translated into WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local, respectively.

Members Council has also worked closely with the Board to ensure that OCLC’s governance structure remains fit for purpose. They actively contributed to a governance study in 1999 and ratified amendments to the Articles and Code that changed the name of Users Council to Members Council and expanded the number of delegates from outside the U.S. In 2007, delegates again were heavily involved in yet another governance study that resulted in their adopting a new governance structure in 2008 in which they relinquished their role in the OCLC cooperative to a new structure of regional councils and a Global Council.

The OCLC cooperative has always been fortunate to have people in libraries and other knowledge institutions who are willing to get involved, not only in governance, but in research, in product development and testing of new services and programs. The Members Council has produced a long line of such people, and the OCLC cooperative is the better for it.

As we move to the next stage of OCLC’s governance, I ask you to join me in thanking the 557 delegates who have served on Members Council since 1978. They have done many things and done them well.

Jay Jordan
OCLC President and Chief Executive Officer

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