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October 31, 2005 Vol 8 no 44

Ching-chih Chen joins OCLC as Consultant to the President

A Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, Boston, Dr. Chen will work on special assignments and projects led by Phyllis Spies, Vice President, OCLC Collection Management Services.

“Ching-chih Chen’s unique perspective, extensive knowledge and experience in information technology applications and global networking will be a tremendous asset to OCLC and to our worldwide digital initiatives in libraries, museums and archives,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO.

View news release

The top trends affecting libraries, and four suggestions on what to do

In the report The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation, the DaVinci Institute, a nonprofit futurist think tank, has put together 10 key trends that are affecting the development of the next generation library. They are:

  • Time compression is changing the lifestyle of library users
  • Libraries are transitioning from a center of information to a center of culture
  • We are transitioning from a product-based to an experience-based economy
  • The stage is being set for a new era of global systems
  • The demand for global information is growing exponentially
  • Over time, we will be transitioning to a verbal society
  • Search technology will become increasingly more complicated
  • We haven’t yet reached the ultimate small particle for storage, but will soon
  • All technology ends and all technologies commonly used today will be replaced by something new
  • Communication systems are continually changing the way people access information

Their recommendations:

  • Evaluate the library experience
  • Preserve the memories of your own communities
  • Embrace new information technologies
  • Experiment with creative spaces so the future role of the library can define itself

View report

OCLC Research updates its
top 1000 Web site

The OCLC Top 1000 lists the works most widely held by OCLC member libraries with thematic sublists, sample cover art, “Find in a Library” links, comparisons to other lists and download files. First published in the fall of 2004, the list represents the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the “purchase vote” of libraries around the globe.

View list

OCLC welcomes these new member libraries

Damelin Boksburg
Location: Guateng, South Africa
OCLC Symbol: ZABOK
OCLC Network: OCLC PICA

Tell City—Perry County Public Library
Location: Tell City, Indiana, USA
OCLC Symbol: INCPC
OCLC Network: INCOLSA

Membership guidelines and protocols

WorldCat update

WorldCat is the world’s most comprehensive bibliographic database. Updated at a rate of nearly one new record every 10 seconds, WorldCat contains more than 62 million bibliographic records and 1 billion holdings contributed by more than 8,900 libraries around the world. The Open WorldCat program makes the items in library collections—physical and digital, popular or special—discoverable by people searching the Internet.

See the latest WorldCat record
 

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