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OCLC Members Council discusses opportunities to continue
expanding the collaborative worldwide

OCLC Members Council met in Dublin, Ohio, October 23-25 to discuss how OCLC can strengthen its existing partnerships and expand the collaborative with particular attention to smaller, rural libraries, and libraries of all sizes and types around the world.

In preparation for the first meeting of the 2005-2006 Members Council, delegates read OCLC reports on the Globalization of OCLC 2005 and Beyond and Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. Delegates considered these reports as they discussed how OCLC might extend the collaborative worldwide and promote more effectively the kinds of services that libraries make available to their users.

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Leap of faith: using the Internet despite the dangers

Results of a national survey of Internet users for Consumer Reports WebWatch

Among the latest findings from the Consumer Reports Web Watch poll:

Nine out of 10 U.S. Internet users over 18 have made changes to their behavior due to fear of identity theft.
The percentage of adults saying they get most of their news from the Internet has doubled, going from 5 percent in 2002 to 11 percent in the most recent survey.
Blogs have won some readers but not much trust. A total of 57 percent distrust what blogs report, with 21 percent saying blogs are never or almost never accurate.
The majority of respondents (56 percent) has still not heard of the common practice of search engines being paid fees to list some sites more prominently than others in search results.

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Library leadership, CONTENTdm raise funds for digitization project

In 2001, alumni Wallis and Marilyn Kimble made a generous gift to seed a special digitization project in The Libraries at Washington State University in order to save a unique but deteriorating historical resource—the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Clippings Collection. In 2003, the Kimbles were so pleased with the results that they extended funding for another three years. Today, the library is about to meet with them again and ask for another round of funding.

What impresses them about the project?

Wide usage. There have been more than 12,700 visits to the site, which also is linked to the Western Waters Digital Library.

Student involvement. Under the leadership of Systems Librarian Ingrid Mifflin, students scanned and indexed the clippings for Internet access. In the process, they learned history and resource preservation, along with earning some extra money. The Kimbles preferred this over scholarships.

Web presentation. CONTENTdm made the clippings attractive and easy to search on the Web. Its simplicity also made training students and collection maintenance easy.

View the collection Meet the donors

OCLC welcomes these new member libraries

Future University-Hakodate
Location: Hakodate, Japan
OCLC Symbol: JAFUH
OCLC Network: OCLC Asia Pacific

Valley Automated Library Network
Location: Spokane, Washington, USA
OCLC Symbol: WINVC
OCLC Network: OCLC Western Service Center

Hope Academy
Location: Decatur, Illinois, USA
OCLC Symbol: ILLHA
OCLC Network: ILLINET

John Wesley College
Location: High Point, North Carolina, USA
OCLC Symbol: JWCNC
OCLC Network: SOLINET

Cambridge City Public Library
Location: Cambridge City, Indiana, USA
OCLC Symbol: INCCP
OCLC Network: INCOLSA

Gauteng Department of Health
Location: Gauteng, South Africa
OCLC Symbol: ZAGDH
OCLC Network: OCLC PICA

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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OCLC Members Council discusses opportunities to continue expanding the collaborative worldwide