The global cooperative in the Asia Pacific region

NextSpace spoke with Vic Elliott, Chair, OCLC Asia Pacific Regional Council and Director, Scholarly Information Services & University Librarian, The Australian National University, following the Asia Pacific Membership Conference in Tokyo, Japan in September.

How many attended from how many different countries?

As was the case at our first Membership Conference in Beijing last year, the level of participation in Tokyo was very encouraging.  The total attendance was 115 delegates of whom around 60 came from Japan.  The overseas delegates were from Australia, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

What was the tenor of the meeting?  What was accomplished?

The underlying theme of the conference was ‘Libraries in Support of Research and Scholarship.’  The program focused on Web-scale management services (or services delivered from the cloud), digitization and access to digital resources, and digital preservation, and featured three keynote speakers:  Jay Jordan, the President and CEO of OCLC, reporting on the cooperative’s current plans and activities, and in particular its strategic directions in a global context; Victoria Reich from Stanford University Libraries speaking on ‘CLOCKSS and digital preservation;’ and Matt Goldner,  the Product and Technology Advocate at OCLC, talking about Web-scale management services in a presentation entitled ‘Cloud computing and libraries.’

In addition, there were presentations from many of the countries within the Asia Pacific region. For example, as the host nation, Japan provided three speakers: Dr. Makoto Nagao, the Librarian at the National Diet Library who talked about ‘Exploring information in the Internet Age;’ Makoto Nakamoto from the Waseda University Library who discussed ‘Library cooperatives and consortia in Japan;’ and Hiroshi Sogo, Group Managing Director of Kinokuniya Book Stores of Singapore, Pte Ltd, who spoke on the ‘Distribution of academic information in the Asia Pacific region and the role of book stores.’   

The Regional Council was also fortunate to have three members of the OCLC Board of Trustees, including its Chair, Larry Alford, and the President of Global Council, Jennifer Younger, in attendance at the meeting. Their presence gave the conference the ability to treat in some depth issues of governance and strategic direction.

115 members from nine countries and territories attended the second Membership Conference of the OCLC Asia Pacific Regional Council. The conference was held at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, September 6–7, 2010.

Realizing that the Asia Pacific region covers many countries and cultures, what unique perspectives do librarians from the Asia Pacific region bring to the cooperative?

The size of the Asia Pacific region is formidable. Our region comprises some 5,000 institutions in 24 countries and, in terms of geography, encompasses the territory west of Hawaii, ranging from China, Korea and Japan in the north to Australia and New Zealand in the south, and Pakistan to the west. This broad geographical spread and the ethnic diversity of the membership do pose challenges for us. Just how do we work together to bring a coordinated approach to the matters and issues that concern us? I think it is fair to say that we are still exploring the options here, trying to find ways that work for us in all parts of our region. But it is also true that our diversity does mean that our perspectives on issues critical to the cooperative vary across the region and are often very different from those of our colleagues in the other regional councils, the Americas and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). I, for one, find this breadth and variety of opinion and perception both valuable and refreshing and believe that increasingly, our voice will make an important contribution to what is now, after all, a global cooperative.

What are some of the challenges librarians face in the Asia Pacific region?

The extent and sophistication of libraries and library services vary widely across the region. In some countries, the information infrastructure available to libraries is highly developed and supports information services that compare favorably with those available in North America and Europe. Elsewhere, libraries and library services are in an early stage of development and lack the resources that most libraries in the developed world take for granted. This uneven playing field makes a single regional approach to current challenges unfeasible. Indeed, the challenges themselves differ within the region, from country to country. This lack of uniformity or consistency across our region can itself be seen as a strength, as something that allows the Asia Pacific Regional Council to make a vibrant contribution to the proceedings of Global Council and the cooperative. We will often see issues through a different lens or set of lenses. And that view, always important to us, may often prove invaluable to the cooperative at large, certainly at a strategic level.

How has the new governance structure extended participation from your region?

The opportunity the new structure gives us to meet together in person, at the annual Regional Council Membership Conferences and at irregular subregional or local meetings, is a great step forward. Such meetings encourage participation at a variety of levels, especially when the raising of issues or concerns is seen to lead directly to concerted action. At the first Membership Conference in Beijing last year, for example, delegates identified matters of concern such as the need for improved communication, a lack of understanding of local ways of doing business, barriers to the uploading of local records in nonstandard formats, restrictions applying to the piloting of OCLC products and services, the urgent need for differential pricing, and the sometimes muddied perception of OCLC as something other than the membership cooperative it really is. I am glad to say

Vic Elliott

Subsequent discussion led to the formation in late 2009 of a Global Council Task Force on Cost Sharing and Pricing Strategy, whose membership included ChewLeng Beh, the founding Chair of our Regional Council. And the concern expressed by the Regional Council that OCLC’s status as a membership cooperative needed clearer definition and promotion fed directly into the then-current discussions about the need for the Global Council to revisit and reformulate the statement of values which should guide the work of the cooperative. Those discussions led to the adoption by Global Council, in June this year, of a revised statement, entitled the “Shared Values and Membership Principles of the OCLC Cooperative.”

I see these developments as proof of the efficacy of the new, devolved governance arrangements. Under the old structure, expressing and receiving acknowledgment of regional needs and concerns was much more difficult. The new structure has opened up lines of access and communication which just did not exist before.

How would you characterize the OCLC cooperative’s image in the Asia Pacific region?

The perception of the cooperative within the region varies in accordance with the nature of the presence OCLC has in particular countries. In some countries, OCLC has direct representation from a local office. In others, OCLC works through an established agency or company. And in others again, services are provided as a consequence of a formal agreement with the local national library. Inevitably, the perception and profile of the cooperative is shaped by the way in which libraries engage with OCLC on a day-to-day basis. Again, I think the Regional Council has a role to play here. By bringing our members together and enabling them to participate in Regional Council meetings and activities, we can encourage them to see themselves as members of a global cooperative rather than simply as recipients of services delivered locally.

What does cooperation mean to libraries in the region?

I think we would all agree that cooperation is seen to be the vehicle by which local libraries can enhance the services they provide to their user communities. By working together and sharing resources and expertise, our members can leverage regional strengths and hereby overcome local weaknesses. It is instructive that the theme of our first Membership Conference in Beijing was resource sharing and collaboration. As that conference showed, raising issues and concerns was not difficult. Identifying appropriate and sustainable initiatives in support of cooperation across our region was much more challenging. But it is a challenge we are determined to meet with the assistance of the global cooperative to which we all belong.

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