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Betsy Wilson elected Chair of OCLC Board of Trustees

Lizabeth (Betsy) A. Wilson, Director of University Libraries, University of Washington, has been elected Chair of the OCLC Board of Trustees.

Ms. Wilson served as OCLC Members Council President for its 1999-2000 term, and has served as a member of the OCLC Board of Trustees since 2000.

From 1992 until her appointment as Director of University Libraries in January 2001, Ms. Wilson was Associate Director of Libraries for Research and Instructional Services at the University of Washington. Previously, she was Assistant Director of Libraries for Undergraduate and Instructional Services at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Learn more about the OCLC Board of Trustees

View the OCLC Library Training & Education Market Needs Assessment Study

In September 2002, OCLC contracted with Outsell, Inc. to survey libraries about the training and education needs of library workers. Outsell received 2,112 responses to the survey, which was designed to define the needs of libraries for training and education, and to discern how OCLC might help serve those needs through online training offerings. Among the study's key findings:

Web-based distance learning for librarians is a small but significant market niche. It currently trails several other training formats in prevalence and perceived importance, yet many respondents will participate in Web-based training programs within the next 12 months.
Library standards and practices was indicated as the area of greatest need, although needs also were reported in high numbers in management skills and information technology skills.
Institutions support and fund traditional training programs, such as off-site seminars and professional conferences, more than emerging alternatives, such as Web-based distance learning.

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University of North Carolina at Wilmington enters 131 millionth request into OCLC ILL service

Created on November 12, the 131 millionth request was for the article It's Customary in the serial Bride's and Your New Home. More than 7,000 libraries use the OCLC Interlibrary Loan service, which began operation in 1979. The service arranged 9.3 million loans in fiscal year 2002-2003.

University of North Carolina Wilmington

OCLC welcomes the following new member libraries

Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
Location: Mexicali, B.C., Mexico
OCLC Symbol: MXUAB
OCLC Network: OCLC Latin America and the Caribbean

Ahlia University
Location: Manama, Bahrain
OCLC Symbol: AHLIA
OCLC Network: OCLC PICA

Center for Humanistic Studies
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
OCLC Symbol: CFHUM
OCLC Network: MLC

More information about OCLC participating institutions

WorldCat update

Every 12 seconds an OCLC member library adds a new record to WorldCat, which contains more than 53 million records representing 905,284,517 holding locations as of November 22, 2003. Every 4 seconds an OCLC member library fills an interlibrary loan request using WorldCat, which has supported 131,345,608 interlibrary loan requests as of November 22, 2003. A library user searches WorldCat using the OCLC FirstSearch service every second.

See the latest WorldCat record

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