OCLC Members Council meets in Quebec City

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA,  23 February 2007—OCLC Members Council met in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, February 5-7 to explore issues facing libraries and the OCLC cooperative from a different perspective and vantage point.  It was the first time in the 29-year history of Members Council that the body has convened outside the United States.

Ernie Ingles, OCLC Members Council President and Vice-Provost and Chief Librarian, University of Alberta, OCLC Canada, presided and, as the first Members Council president from outside the United States, welcomed delegates to the historic meeting.  The theme for the 2006/2007 session is "OCLC Organizational Dissonance: The New Harmony."

Fire and Ice

"Even though Canada is not far away from the United States, it is far enough that we have attributes and values that are different," said Mr. Ingles.  "It is only by exemplar that we talk about Canada in some of our programs.  So many of the things we'll talk about apply here in Canada, and in other parts of the world."

Michael Adams, President, Environics, one of Canada's leading marketing and social survey research organizations, examined some of the differences in values between Americans and Canadians in his presentation, "Fire and Ice: The U.S., Canada and the Myth of Converging Values."

Mr. Adams provided data to illustrate the differences between Americans and Canadians.  He noted that his research is not just about polling on "wedge issues," but is based on gauging values based on answers to very specific questions and plotting them on a socio-cultural map to help determine trends.

He said that Canadians may think they are becoming more and more similar to their American cousins because, in part, they are inundated with popular American culture.  For example, studies show that Canadians and Americans place their families above everything else in terms of importance.  However, after taking a closer look, Adams found that how each group defined "family" was quite different.  And it was in the details of how the family is defined that Adams was able to examine values.  Americans, he said, were more likely to define a family as having the father as "master of his own house"--52 percent to 21 percent in 2005, up from 42 percent to 26 percent in 1992.

"That tells me that something is going on when the thinking in the structure of authority in the most fundamental institution in your culture is quite different," said Mr. Adams.  "The implications of this--in the consumer marketplace, the political marketplace, in the workplace--are probably going to be significant if we carry those values through."

Mr. Adams said that these findings might suggest Americans could be experiencing "what I would call social Darwinism.  In a culture of fear, who do you turn to?  You turn to traditional, manly traits in which 'somebody?s got to protect us.'"

Mr. Adams said that by understanding people's values, motivations and mindsets, he has a much better idea of who they are.  Based on his research, Mr. Adams compared Americans and Canadians and found, generally, that:  "Americans are more confident, and feel a greater sense of vitality, but feel more time stress because they are working more, with more people working very long hours.  More relaxed Canadians have less need for order and harbor fewer self-doubts." 

He concluded by identifying two characteristics that Americans and Canadians share:  "We are carbon-based species, and we share a sense of humor." 

WorldCat living up to its name

Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO, brought delegates up to date on OCLC's activities since the last Members Council meeting in October 2006, and discussed plans for the future. 

He noted that the WorldCat database continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with many of the records entered into the world's largest bibliographic resource coming from outside the United States, in non-English languages. 

In the past several years, OCLC has added international files from the National Library of Germany's bibliography, Dutch Union Catalogue, LinkUK, Toronto Public Library, University of Manitoba, University of Gottingen, National Library of Education in Denmark, the National Union Catalog of Poland, and more.  OCLC expects to process more than 38 million records from outside the United States in 2007, from Iceland, Sweden and New Zealand, to name a few.  OCLC has also started adding records from the RLG Union Catalog to WorldCat. 

In 1998, about one-third of the WorldCat database represented English-language work.  In 2006, the percentage of English-language records has declined by six percentage points, which is significant when considering the millions of records that have been added since 1998. 

"Our goal is to make OCLC services and programs available around the world to as many libraries and other cultural heritage organizations as possible.  We will pursue cooperative opportunities country by country, region by region and institution by institution," said Mr. Jordan. 

Mr. Jordan used the opportunity to announce that OCLC plans to open an office in Beijing in May. 

"Being a global library cooperative is not about exporting U.S.-based products," said Mr. Jordan.  "Globalization is localization on a wide scale, and localization is more than translation of interfaces.  It is about providing access to non-English content.  It is about building local alliances so that marketing, sales and market research are done locally.  It is about joint development projects that utilize local technical resources.  It is about partnerships to provide training and education with local language partners." 

"As the first day of our historic meeting in Quebec City draws to a close, I want to assure you that we at OCLC will continue to work hard at becoming more global, in our service offerings and in our perspective," he said. 

Collaboration, Change and the Future of the Cooperative

James Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, Columbia University, listed specific areas in which he hoped OCLC would "watch, feel and do" in his presentation, "Global Collaboration and the Future of the OCLC Cooperative." 

Mr. Neal described himself as "born professionally during the infancy of OCLC in the late 60s and early 70s."  He noted that he has lived through OCLC's adolescence through full maturity as a global cooperative, "serving the library community's voracious appetite for cost effective access to worldwide information." 

Mr. Neal has been involved the OCLC cooperative on a variety of levels, as a user and a leader.  He served on and chaired the Research Libraries Advisory Council.  And he currently chairs the OCLC Board of Trustee's Committee on RLG Programs, and serves on the RLG Programs Council.  Mr. Neal was recently named winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements by academic librarians that have contributed significantly to improvements in libraries. 

"Libraries of all types continue to advance our core roles in information acquisition, synthesis, navigation, dissemination, interpretation, understanding, and archiving," said Mr. Neal.  "But the focus on get, organize, find, deliver, answer, learn and preserve--those core activities that we are part of as libraries--they're clearly being extended as libraries assume new and often schizophrenic roles as consumers, aggregators, publishers, educators, research and development organizations, entrepreneurs and policy advocates.  What does this mean for the OCLC cooperative?" 

Mr. Neal briefly outlined a context, and then presented ideas about what he'd like OCLC to watch and observe "with more intensity," including the culture of competition, organizational mutations, workforce development, standards development, accountability mandates, text and data mining opportunities, cultural organization convergence, and emerging technologies. 

He pointed to areas of interest where he'd like OCLC "to feel with more passion," such as the importance of globalization, partnerships, social responsibility, user aspirations, library psychology, and value propositions. 

And he suggested things he'd like to see OCLC do, including invest in teaching and learning, digital preservation, the "open" revolution, the repository movement, take entrepreneurial actions, provide more research and development, scholarly communication, leadership development, and information policy. 

"Clearly, we will have OCLC in our professional genes and we will see our success as libraries ultimately bundled up in OCLC's vitality and relevance," said Mr. Neal.  "We can no longer stand side by side--we must be with one another." 

"In any relationship, as Churchill has pointed out, 'to improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often,'" said Mr. Neal. 

RONDAC Report

"It's a time of change for OCLC, Networks and you, representatives of our member libraries," said Shannon Behrhorst, Chair, RONDAC (Regional OCLC Network Directors Advisory Committee), in introducing the Members Council Open Forum on Network-OCLC Future and Strategic Relations.  "We are all facing a landscape in flux and moving so fast we can barely keep up.  How each of us serves our users and members is changing." 

Ms. Behrhorst noted that over the past two years, OCLC-affiliated networks have been working through RONDAC and small task forces to engage OCLC leadership in discussions about navigating changes in how networks operate in partnership with OCLC.  Delegates discussed these and other issues during the open forum on the future of OCLC and network strategic directions and governance.

"Both OCLC and the networks come to the table with one main goal--and that is to do what is best for our membership," said Ms. Behrhorst. 

During the three-day meeting, Members Council delegates also met in small, library-type groups and interest groups for discussions.  Delegates also discussed a broad range of issues in the plenary sessions. 

Back to Quebec City in 2008 for IFLA

"We felt honored that Members Council chose Canada as the first place outside the United States to meet," said Daniel Boivin, Director, OCLC Canada.  "It was a great opportunity for Canadian libraries to take center stage in the OCLC community.  We hope delegates enjoyed their visit as much as we enjoyed hosting them, and we look forward to seeing many of the same library leaders in 2008."  Quebec City will host the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) annual meeting in 2008. 

Members Council delegates received warm welcomes from Canadian library leaders, including Denis Boisvert, ASTED President (University Librarian, Universite du Quebec a Rimouski); Michel Claveau, CBPQ President (Ville de Montreal); Linda Cook, CLA President (Edmonton Public Library); John Teskey, CARL President (University of New Brunswick); Edel Toner-Rogala, CULC President (Burnaby Public Library); Ian Wilson, National Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada. 

Following the meeting, Members Council delegates were led on tours of Laval University Libraries, and the Quebec City Public Library. 

The next OCLC Members Council meeting will be May 21-23 in Dublin, Ohio. 

About Members Council
The 66-delegate Members Council supports OCLC's mission by serving as the key discussion forum and communications link between member libraries, regional networks and other partners, and OCLC management.  By providing a channel for recommendations and questions from Members Council delegates, approving changes in the Code of Regulations, and electing six members of the Board of Trustees, Members Council helps shape the future direction of OCLC.

About OCLC
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, e-content and preservation services to 57,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories.  For more information, visit <www.oclc.org>.

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