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September 7, 2004 Vol 7 no 42

Academic libraries building a unique database
on western water management using CONTENTdm

For the first time, researchers, policy makers, educators and citizens will have an easy-to-use, Web-based resource that chronicles water usage and conservation for the Western United States, thanks to the Greater Western Library Alliance. The Western Waters Digital Library, a two-year pilot funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, presents sample digital collections from Oregon State University, University of Oregon, University of Utah, University of Washington and Washington State University about the discovery, distribution and development of water resources—and the resulting impact on people and communities. Built by librarians using CONTENTdm, the collection currently focuses on the Platte, Rio Grande, Colorado and Columbia River basins and includes a variety of government reports, legal transcripts, water project records, photographs and personal papers in a variety of formats. An index of the metadata from the geographically dispersed collections is harvested by a central server at the University of Utah to enable virtual, seamless searching of all the collections from a single Web site. The digital library will increase in geographic coverage and participation as the project develops.

OCLC is the exclusive distributor to libraries of CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software, an easy-to-use software solution that helps institutions organize a variety of digital materials, including photographs, maps and historic documents.

Take a look at these public library trends from 1990-2002

A 12-year analysis of trends in public libraries by Robert E. Molyneux, Director, Statistics and Surveys at the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, found that:

  • The mean number of total paid staff rose over the period. The largest libraries added the largest number of staff members while the smallest libraries added the fewest, but the percentage increases were roughly the same.

  • The number of ALA-MLS librarians increased faster than the population served.

  • Total operating expenditures increased and beat inflation.

  • Number of current serials subscriptions increased.

View the report

University president, international library leader nominated to OCLC Board

Elisabeth Niggemann, Director General of Die Deutsche Bibliothek, and David P. Roselle, President of the University of Delaware, have been nominated to serve in two open positions on the OCLC Board of Trustees.

Dr. Niggemann is a worldwide leader in international library cooperation. She was Director of the University and State Library, Düsseldorf, before being named to her current position.

Dr. Roselle was President of the University of Kentucky and Provost at Virginia Polytechnic and State University prior to becoming President at the University of Delaware.

Read the entire story

OCLC welcomes the following new member libraries

Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa
Location: Sinaloa, Mexico
OCLC Symbol: MZADS
OCLC Network: OCLC Latin America and the Caribbean

Eastview Middle School
Location: Bartlett, Illinois, USA
OCLC Symbol: ILEMS
OCLC Network: ILLINET

Kimball Middle School
Location: Elgin, Illinois, USA
OCLC Symbol: ILKMS
OCLC Network: ILLINET

Membership guidelines and protocols

WorldCat update

Every 12 seconds an OCLC member library adds a new record to WorldCat, which contained more than 56 million records representing 941,807,292 holding locations as of October 16, 2004. Every 4 seconds an OCLC member library fills an interlibrary loan request using WorldCat, which has supported 139,500,158 interlibrary loan requests as of October 16, 2004. A library user searches WorldCat using the OCLC FirstSearch service every second.

See the latest WorldCat record
 

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