History of cooperation
Increasing access to information
In 1967, a small group of library leaders believed that working together, they could find solutions to the day’s most pressing issues facing libraries. They began with the idea of combining computer technology with library cooperation to reduce costs and improve services through shared, online cataloging. Today, as technology has made the world smaller and the reach of libraries greater, OCLC has grown into a worldwide organization in which 23,000 libraries, archives and museums in 170 countries are members. And the OCLC cooperative is helping libraries define their place in the digital world with new Webscale services that amplify and extend library cooperation even further.
“Through the cooperative, our mission is achievable. Our library and its users will never be the same.”
George Bishop, Ovid-Elsie Area Schools, Elsie Michigan