Welcome from your Global Council!

We come together as the OCLC Global Council to give voice to the importance of libraries as providers of information, keepers of culture and heritage, and as that essential institution that helps to advance and strengthen the communities we serve. Our more than 18,000 members elect Global Council delegates charged with keeping the cooperative up to date on the range of issues, concerns and accomplishments of modern global libraries and with articulating the importance of working together to extend our reach, inform our communities and increase our impact.

Annually, we present our Library Futures Conferences. These global meetings focus on a single theme and this year, we have chosen Community Catalysts. We will look at how libraries serve as transformers of the lives of the people, communities and groups by exploring how we meet the evolving needs of our users, create measurable impacts, innovate with technology and build powerful networks that allow us to achieve more together.

The journey continues for the Global Council to bring worldwide viewpoints together by examining emerging issues and by exchanging information and understanding among regions, OCLC, and global library leaders.

Welcome from your Americas Regional Council!

Welcome to ARC! As Chair of the region representing OCLC members from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, our more than 10,000 members are served by 32 Global Council delegates. We reflect the diversity of history, cultures, and languages of the libraries within our region. Acknowledging both our similarities and differences, we work together to promote the mission of our institutions, understand the importance of working as a cooperative, and find solutions to the challenges we all face. Please become an active participant by sharing your views, ideas, and experiences, and by attending the ARC Library Futures Conference in Phoenix, Arizona USA on 2-3 October 2019.

Welcome from your EMEA Regional Council

The EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region represents more than 70 countries in which libraries, museums and archives all face many challenges. Understanding and communicating this diversity is key to identifying regional priorities with regard to OCLC’s services and development of the global cooperative.

The Executive Committee of the EMEA Regional Council aims to represent all OCLC member libraries, and this calls for a well-developed network and excellent communication among the membership. OCLC members throughout the EMEA region elect 11 delegates to the Global Council. These delegates serve staggered three-year terms and represent various library types and territories. As delegates, we welcome your input, questions, comments and concerns in order to represent members’ interests and provide informed opinions to OCLC about the direction of the library community. The EMEA Regional Council also invites libraries to join them during their annual conference which will take place in Vienna, Austria on 3-4 March 2020. Please feel free to contact us to discuss regional issues or matters concerning the global cooperative. Understanding the diversity of our membership is key to identifying, and responding to, regional priorities for OCLC’s services and the development of the global cooperative.

Welcome from your Asia Pacific Regional Council

The Asia Pacific region is unique and diverse. The richness of our cultures, heritage, languages and scripts are a challenge as well as an opportunity. Our region both contributes to and benefits from the growing collections of member institutions worldwide. OCLC’s global presence has been a valuable asset for libraries in our region. This initiative has provided access to resources for users, products and services that draw from OCLC’s advanced innovation and research. We would like to invite libraries from around the globe to continue to play an active role in the cooperative and raise your voice. We welcome your input, questions, comments and concerns in order to represent members’ interests and provide informed opinions to OCLC about the direction of the library community. We invite institutions throughout New Zealand, Australia and Asia to become active participants in the global cooperative by participating in our annual conference in Singapore, on 20-21 November 2019.