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OCLC

About OCLC
The world’s libraries. Connected.

Home

About OCLC Record by record, keystroke by keystroke, librarians built OCLC into the world’s largest library
History of cooperation cooperative. We are dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s
information and reducing the rate of rise of library costs.
Commitment to innovation

Community initiatives

Board of trustees

OCLC leadership
OCLC connects libraries in a global network to manage and share the
Speakers bureau
world’s knowledge and to form a community dedicated to the values of
Professional development librarianship: cooperation, resource sharing and universal access. The
Sustainability and financial network links members to a powerful, cloud-based infrastructure that
reports provides the systemwide intelligence and cooperative platform needed to OCLC members cooperatively
collectively innovate and drive operational efficiencies in metadata produce and maintain
creation, interlibrary loan, digitization, discovery and delivery. It also WorldCat—the world’s most
provides opportunities for cooperation and resource sharing built around comprehensive database of
library materials and a tribute to
a worldwide community of users—working together at the scale of the
collaborative spirit of libraries.
Web.

The OCLC cooperative is member-owned and member-governed.

Mission
Librarians guide and shape our direction through a 16-member Board of
Trustees—more than half of whom are librarians—and a global council of Connecting people to knowledge through
librarians, who are elected by librarians from regional councils of member library cooperation.

libraries.
Vision

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Public Purpose

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Public Purpose
Furthering access to the world's information and reducing the rate of rise of per-unit costs

OCLC is a worldwide library cooperative, owned, governed and sustained by members since 1967. Our public
purpose is a statement of commitment to each other—that we will work together to improve access to the
information held in libraries around the globe, and find ways to reduce costs for libraries through collaboration.
Our public purpose is to establish, maintain and operate a computerized library network and to promote the
evolution of library use, of libraries themselves and of librarianship, and to provide processes and products for
the benefit of library users and libraries, including such objectives as increasing availability of library resources
to individual library patrons and reducing the rate-of-rise of library per-unit costs, all for the fundamental public
purpose of furthering ease of access to and use of the ever-expanding body of worldwide scientific, literary and
educational knowledge and information.

[From the Amended Articles of Incorporation of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated]

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Academic libraries

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Serving
academic libraries

In a rapidly changing educational environment, academic libraries need more time and staff resources to meet the
needs of faculty and students. They are also looking for tools that shine a light on the vital work that academic
libraries contribute to the success of their institutions. OCLC services help simplify library workflows, giving staff the
tools and time to invest in relationships across campus, evolve local collections and create new programs.

Products and programs for academic libraries

Streamline library management

workfows
Librarians at Doane College wanted to do more work on vital, unique
projects. To do that, they needed to spend a lot less time on routine
management tasks. Easier cataloging and workflow improvements gave
them the time savings they needed to work on their local archive.

Read Doane College’s story

Expand e-resource availability

and visibility
Faculty and students at High Point University had grown accustomed to

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Academic libraries

searching through multiple sites and services for resources. Now, with a
single discovery platform, their library provides access to a wide range of
electronic content. The change has also made it easier for learners
around the globe to find content available only in High Point’s collections.

Read High Point University’s story

Increase usage with demand

driven acquisition
For years, librarians at Bucknell University had noticed a growing trend.
Materials purchased through standard acquisitions processes were used
only about 20 percent of the time. Those requested directly by students
and faculty? 80+ percent. Taking advantage of this observation, however,
required the library to dramatically streamline the discovery-to-delivery
process.

Read Bucknell University’s story

Save unique, at-risk digital

content
Getting started with born-digital archives is a complex task. The technical
skills needed to preserve punched cards, magnetic tape, floppy disks,
CDs, DVDs, zip drives, hard drives and other digital media are often new
and daunting. Cooperative library research provided the UCLA Library
and other institutions with a way to break down the challenge into more
easily manageable activities.  

Read UCLA Library’s story

Get students to your licensed

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Academic libraries

materials
Mount Mercy University librarians wanted to improve the way their
students located and used online resources. One year after switching to a
service that integrated management and discovery activities, downloads
from their licensed databases were up 25 percent. And staff members
were saving time on a wide range of cataloging, acquisition and
circulation tasks.

Read Mount Mercy University Library’s story

Automate e-resource
management
Library staff at University of Maryland, College Park were faced with an
ever-growing volume of electronic collections. Better workflows and
access to a cooperative knowledge base allowed them to automate many
tasks associated with managing e-books. The result? More than 462,000
new e-books, searchable and accessible to students, in just one year.

Read Universtiy of Maryland, College Park’s story

Manage electronic collections

cooperatively
Drexel University librarians had grown used to a series of workarounds
related to managing e-content records from multiple sources. Access to a
shared knowledge base and the ability to manage metadata at the
collection level eliminated much of the complexity.

Read Drexel University’s story

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