Fostering dialogues, building on our diversity

Librarians and users at both large and small institutions have rightfully come to think of OCLC as their organization. They are stakeholders in OCLC, and they have voices and concerns that require attention.

OCLC listens and responds to these voices and concerns through a variety of channels. Some channels are formal, such as the Members Council, Board of Trustees and advisory committees, while others are informal (not part of governance) but nonetheless effective conduits for important matters or pressing concerns. As a result, at any given time, OCLC has a number of dialogues going on with different parts of the library and information community. Four recent dialogues demonstrate the increasing diversity of the OCLC cooperative.

In June, NetLibrary hosted a Publishers Summit out in Estes Park, Colorado, which convened about 50 publishers and librarians to exchange views about eBooks and electronic collections. The primary purpose of this summit was to foster a dialogue between librarians and publishers. Both publishers and librarians learned from each other and identified areas where they could work together. It was the second annual summit, and we are already planning the third in 2006.

In September, we hosted a dialogue forum on Chinese digital content at OCLC for 20 librarians of East Asian collections in ARL institutions and 14 representatives from Chinese digital content providers. The idea for this meeting began in March 2005, when I participated in the 3rd China–U.S. Library Conference in Shanghai, China, where East Asian librarians urged OCLC to convene a meeting of Chinese content users and providers. At the forum, we discussed OCLC’s programs and strategies and our eContent platforms and services. The Chinese content providers presented their plans. At the end of the meeting, the group agreed that OCLC should hold individual dialogues with each content provider to determine potential business relationships. We will meet with the East Asian librarians again in San Francisco in the spring to update them on our progress.

In October, with support from a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, we organized and hosted a conference for managers of statewide and regional digitization collaboratives. About 70 participants from 32 states attended the conference. They represented libraries, museums and historical societies and they are working on statewide collaborative digitization projects. IMLS has also awarded a grant to OCLC and the Getty Museum to conduct Web-Wise conferences in 2006 and 2007 for museums and libraries.

In November, we hosted 17 of the fellows in the ARL Research Library Leadership Program. These emerging leaders in the research library community spent three days with the senior leadership of OCLC in a dialogue that included the future of the catalog and the collection in a research institution; the environment of Google Print and Scholar, the Open Content Alliance and Amazon Pages; and branding the library’s services.

I would be remiss, however, if I did not mention a dialogue with the entire OCLC community that has been ongoing since 1978—the OCLC Members Council. The 66 delegates to the 2005–2006 Members Council held the first of three meetings on October 23–25. Members Council President Maggie Farrell, Dean of Libraries, University of Wyoming, presided over a diverse group of delegates from academic, public, school, research, national, state and special libraries in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong/China, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom, West Indies and United States. They communicate regularly with OCLC management, are upstream in the strategic planning process at OCLC, and represent the concerns of OCLC members and participants around the world.

I have often stated that one of the great strengths of the OCLC cooperative is its diversity. Another strength is our ability to conduct dialogues and exchange frank and candid views with an eye toward improving services to libraries and their users. Clearly, we must continue to talk with each other and open new dialogues when needed.

Jay Jordan
OCLC President and Chief Executive Officer

Editor’s letter | Updates