OCLC

OCLC, Inc, founded 1967, is a US non-profit providing cataloging services.

OCLC, Inc, founded 1967, is a US non-profit providing cataloging services.

History

The Committee of Librarians of the Ohio College Association commissioned Frederick Kilgour and Ralph Parker to advise on options for cooperation in cataloging. They proposed in 1965 a centralized union catalog that would support online cataloging, printing of catalog cards, and other services to slow the rate of increase in library operating costs.

OCLC was established in order "to promote the evolution of library use, of libraries themselves, and of librarianship" (Kilgour). Also created "to establish, maintain, and operate a computerized regional library center...designed to become a part of any national electronic network for bibliographic communication; to develop, maintain, and operate a shared cataloging program; to create, maintain, and operate a computerized central catalog of books and journals in the participating libraries."

In 1971, the online catalog system could be searched by libraries and member input cataloging was accepted.

In 1972 the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority, later named the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services, was established and implemented the first extension of OCLC services outside of Ohio.

Also in 1972, the OCLC control number index was available online. In 1973, an extended search function offered as well as computer-produced accession lists. In 1975, the database was expanded and reorganized: new search key structures and a personal author index was available.

In 1976, the first issue of Technical Reports was produced. That same year, new search strategies were offered: a corporate name index, a revised truncated entry display, and retrieval of personal names from added entry fields and implements card production for MARC II formats in addition to books.

OCLC acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988.

OCLC's name changed in 1977 when the Ohio College Library Center became the Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

Contributions

• As a catalog service OCLC made made cataloging more efficient by making existing catalog records available for each library's catalogers to adopt or adapt.

• The union catalog, now branded "WorldCat," augmented by each participating library's cataloging and the addition of Library of Congress records, grew rapidly and, because holding libraries were identified on each record, soon saw heavy use by librarians to arrange inter-library loan requests.[1]

• From 1971 to 2015 OCLC provided a printing service that provided each participating library with printed catalog cards using that library's preferred specifications and presorted (prior to printing) in the filing order for each catalog. Demand peaked in 1985 with 131 million cards then declined as online catalogs replaced card catalogs. OCLO supplied a total of 1.9 billion catalog cards,

• Ruecking algorithms were designed to provided extremely efficient searching.

• OCLC has a significant research department.[2]

Further reading

• Website. OCLC. [3]
• "OCLC" Wikipedia [4]
• Kilgour, F. G. "The OCLC on-line library network." International Forum for Information Documentation 5, no 1 (1980): 35-36.
• Maciuszko, Kathleen L. OCLC, a decade of development, 1967-1977. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1984.

Papers

OCLC Archives [5]