Join Andrew Pace, OCLC Director of Networked Services, pilot participants and Advisory Council members for a live Web event as they discuss how OCLC Web-scale Management Services can positively impact your library’s budget and workflows. See Web-scale Circulation and Acquisitions components in action and learn about the underlying technologies that truly make this a next-generation suite of management services.

• Wednesday, July 21, 2010
• 2:00 – 3:00pm Eastern

Reserve your seat at: www.oclc.org/info/webscale

OverCat, LibraryThing’s new index of 32 million library records (arguably the second-largest searchable database of library records in existence, after OCLC), was assembled from record sets from libraries around the world.  In addition to records from the 690 libraries to which LibraryThing connects, the core consists of full datasets from the Library of Congress, Washington State, Boston College, Oregon State, and Talis Base (a collection of UK libraries). LibraryThing has added to this records from the hundreds of thousands of books members have searched for and added from the site.

Please note that OverCat, which is being positioned as the first step in a major upgrade of LibraryThing’s cataloging functions, is available to LibraryThing members in the course of normal site activity—cataloging small collections of books.  It will not be available for external access, including by libraries.  It is not a back door to OCLC data (see WorldCat Records Use Policy).

More about OverCat and LibraryThing

Community feedback shaped new policy

DUBLIN, Ohio, June 21, 2010—A new WorldCat record use policy, developed by a Record Use Policy Council and informed by community input, has been approved by the OCLC Board of Trustees. WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative will be effective August 1, 2010.

The new policy outlines the rights and responsibilities associated with stewardship of the WorldCat bibliographic and holdings database by and for the OCLC cooperative, including the use and exchange of OCLC member-contributed data comprising WorldCat.
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New York’s Statewide Preservation plan has identified preservation education as a top area of need in NYS.  The other two top priorities are disaster preparedness and infrastructure.   Those concerned with the preservation of collections should check out more about the NYS Connecting to Collections project.

Get Started:  Preservation Building Blocks for Smaller Institutions will be offered at Nylink on October 20.  This is a great class for folks who are charged with preservation activities at their institutions.  Anyone working in a library, museum, archive or special collection is welcome to attend, regardless of the size of your organization.  Plus the workshop is only $45!

Until July, 31, 2010, you can save $500 on your subscription to WorldCat Collection Analysis. We’ll waive the $500 set-up fee and, if you’ve used WorldCat Collection Analysis before, we’ll give you a month free so you can get acclimated to all the great enhancements we’ve made!

WorldCat Collection Analysis helps you make the most of your acquisitions budgets. You get precise data that reveals your library’s subject-matter strengths, gaps, and overlaps.

Order Now! This great offer ends July 31, 2010.

Groups are eligible to receive a 15% discount on new subscriptions purchased by July 31, 2010. Contact us at 1-800-898-6252 or email WCAGeneral@oclc.org for more information

Libraries select e-reserves and special collections solutions despite tight budgets

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – March 3, 2010 – Atlas Systems, the leading provider of timesaving solutions for libraries, announced today that sales of the Aeon software for managing special collections and the Ares electronic reserves solution have surpassed expectations for the first quarter of 2010.
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In April Nylink staffers Meredith Case, Deidre Dowling, and Jim Mancuso conducted three focus groups on the topic of Integrated Library Systems. The events, which took place in Colonie, Liverpool and Clarence, were attended by librarians from a variety of institutions who offered their thoughts, ideas and experiences with ILSs. Discussions surrounded questions such as, “What would you include in your dream ILS?” and “What do you expect from a good ILS vendor?” Trends noted included having searching like Google, the desire for ILS support techs to really “know” libraries, and for web-based clients. The conversations were honest, open, and thoughtful. And needless to say very informative! We want to thank all the librarians who participated and made each focus group flow so well. We are currently analyzing the information and expect a report to be generated by the end of May 2010.

The OCLC Record Use Policy Council members have been working for the past few months to develop the next generation of a WorldCat use policy, and we are pleased to announce that the draft document, WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative, is open for community review.
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NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES DIVISION OF PRESERVATION AND ACCESS

Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions help small and mid-sized institutions, such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, town and county records offices, and colleges and universities, improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections.  Awards of up to $6000 support preservation related collection assessments, consultations, training and workshops, and institutional and collaborative disaster and emergency planning. Grants cover consultant fees, workshop registration fees, related travel and per diem expenses, and the costs of purchasing and shipping preservation supplies and equipment.
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