OCLC: Collaboratively Building Webscale Services With Libraries

Abstract

In 2000, OCLC shared with its membership a new strategy to “weave libraries into the web, and the web into libraries.” The plan called for OCLC to transform WorldCat from a bibliographic database and online union catalog to a globally networked information resource, interweaving the physical and electronic collections of the world’s libraries. Salient features of the strategy were to extend the cooperative, build a new technological platform, transform WorldCat, introduce new services, and, ultimately, make libraries a visible and viable presence on the Worldwide Web. Since then, OCLC has made considerable progress, culminating in the launch in 2012 of its computer cloud-based WorldShare Management Services. The concept of Webscale is discussed within the context of six trends affecting libraries and their users.