Today was the first day of the 3 day meeting. I am attending this virtually and will write brief summaries of the sessions that I am able to attend. These are open to everyone, so feel free to jump in tomorrow or Wednesday if you find a topic of interest to you. You can click on http://www.oclc.org/livefeed, to attend. Copied after my brief summaries is the full agenda.
The minutes will be archived and available at: http://www.oclc.org/councils/global/meetings/default.htm.
Jennifer Younger, Global Council President, described OCLC’s the Council’s vision and gave an over view of the current status of the OCLC Records Use Policy and said that Step 5, “Disupted Uses” is to be further developed. She emphasized ehancing the quality of WorldCat and the mission of problem solving in a cooperative.
Robin Murray, OCLC VP for Global Product Development described the vision of “Collaboratively Building Web-scale with Libraries.” He defined the differences between web-scale (aggregating data, communities, and infrastructures) with cloud computing (which is mostly about delivering IT in an enlarged and elastic way). Murray explained how OCLC is providing a platform for web services where there is a single point for sharing and building varoius library applications (apps).
Kathryn Harnish, OCLC Senior Product Manager, described more specifics with the how of OCLC Web services and the sponsoring of “hackathons” and “mashathons. OCLC provides a Developer Network Website to foster collaboration and the collection of various apps. OCLC hopes in the future to create a more formal infrastructure and a consistent way to expose and share innovations in a more “organic way.”
Bill Maes and Robin Green addressed the communication pathways of the Global Council and other members and associated parties. They posed questions concerning the best way to increase collaboration and become a global force.
[Note: I missed Johm Helmer's "Cost Sharing Models Task Force Update and Discussion]
Rick Schwieterman, OCLC Executive VP and CFO, discussed the financial implications of OCLC’s tax exempt status in the United States and the gains and savings that libraries have realized as the financial model went from transactional based to subscritpion based pricing. It was interesting to see on one of his charts that metadata earnings have been a large piece of the finanial pie (41.8% in FY 2005 and 44.6% in FY11). Schwieterman presented several graphs showing OCLC’s consolidated activities (e.g. revenues, operating results, investment activities, etc) which have been mostly decreasing and most operations have been at a break even level. One of the last charts showed OCLC Credits increasing and this is a way for libraries to gain back some of their OCLC payments. In FY10, Cataloging Credits were almost 7 million.
Kendall Wiggin gave an overview of OCLC’s public purpose and pro bono activites, making the case that there are not many true pro bono activities like in the legal and medical professions. Wiggin’s referred to the website that describes the full public purpose of OCLC; http://www.oclc.org/about/purpose/default.htm and commented that a definitinon is needed for “audience” and “purpose.”
Agenda
All times are listed in U.S. Eastern Time.
Monday, 11 April 2011
| 8:30–8:45a.m. |
|
Welcome & Introductions – Jennifer Younger, President, OCLC Global Council
Global Council President’s Report – Jennifer Younger, President
Global Council Nominating Committee Report – Janet Copsey, Chair |
| 8:45–9:30a.m. |
|
Collaboratively Building Web-scale with Libraries – Robin Murray, VP Global Product |
| 9:30–10:00a.m. |
|
What’s It All About? OCLC Web Services, Developers Network and the Application Gallery: Their Contribution to the Cooperative – Kathryn Harnish, Senior Product Manager |
| 10:00–11:00a.m. |
|
Break |
| 11:00–11:30a.m. |
|
Ensuring Robust Communications and Member Engagement for the OCLC Cooperative – Bill Maes, University Librarian, Dalhousie University; and Robin Green, Deputy Librarian, University of Warwick, Co-Chairs, GC Communications Task Force |
| 11:30a.m.–1:30p.m. |
|
Break |
| 1:30–2:30p.m. |
|
Cost Sharing Models Task Force Update and Discussion – John Helmer, Executive Director, Orbis Cascade Alliance and Chair of the Cost Sharing Models Task Force |
| 2:30–3:00p.m. |
|
Break |
| 3:00–3:30p.m. |
|
Financial Q&A with Rick Schwieterman, Executive VP and CFO |
| 3:30–4:15p.m. |
|
OCLC’s Public Purpose and Pro Bono Activities – Kendall Wiggin, State Librarian, Connecticut State Library |
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
| 8:30–9:15a.m. |
|
OCLC’s President Report and Discussion – Jay Jordan, President and CEO
• How will the strategic directions and goals enhance OCLC’s ability to carry out its public purpose of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing the rate of rise of per-unit costs?
• What are the most challenging issues?
• Questions from Delegates |
| 9:15–10:00a.m. |
|
Board Report and Discussion – Larry Alford, Chair, Board of Trustees
• What are the most challenging issues today? In three years?
• Questions from Delegates |
| 10:00–10:30a.m. |
|
Break |
| 10:30–11:15a.m. |
|
Europeana: Think Culture! – Elisabeth Niggemann, Director General, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and Member, OCLC Board of Trustees |
| 11:15–Noon |
|
Linked Data and Open Data Licensing – George Buzash, Attorney, OCLC Legal Department; Karen Calhoun, VP Metadata, OCLC; and Gordon Dunsire, Member, W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group (LLD XG) |
| Noon–1:15p.m. |
|
Break |
| 1:15–2:15p.m. |
|
Archives – Dennis Meissner, Head of Collections Management, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minnesota |
| 2:15–3:00p.m. |
|
Research Data Management and Linked Data Initiatives
• OPEN Biz – Simon Bains, Head of Digital Library, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
• The Australian National Data Service – Vic Elliott, Director, Scholarly Information Services & University Librarian, The Australian National University |
| 3:00–3:30p.m. |
|
Break |
| 3:30–4:15p.m. |
|
Membership Strategies and Successes in the Regional Councils – Updates from Regional Chairs: Asia Pacific, EMEARC and the Americas Regional Council |
| 4:15–4:45p.m. |
|
WorldCat in the Global Information Space: The National Library of Australia/OCLC Partnership – Warwick Cathro, Assistant Director-General, Resource Sharing and Innovation, National Library of Australia |
| 4:45–5:00p.m. |
|
Presentations by Global Council Vice-President Candidates – Janet Copsey, University Librarian, University of Auckland and Nominating Committee Chair |
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
| 8:30–9:30a.m. |
|
WorldCat in the Global Information Space: Issues and Priorities in Enhancing WorldCat Quality – Berndt Dugall, Direktor/Librarian, Universität Frankfurt; and Karen Calhoun, VP Metadata Applications, OCLC |
| 9:30–10:00a.m. |
|
Assessing the New Governance Structure – Vic Elliott, Moderator |
| 10:00–10:30a.m. |
|
Break |
| 10:30–11:20a.m. |
|
Global Council Business Meeting
• Announcement of Global Council election results – Janet Copsey, Chair, Nominating Committee
• Discussion and vote on Guidelines for Contributions to WorldCat – Henriette de Kok, MPM, Public Library, Bibliotheek Midden-Brabant, The Netherlands; Carol Pitts Diedrichs, Director of University Libraries and Professor, The Ohio State University; and Glenn Patton, Director, WorldCat Quality Management, OCLC
• Report from Membership Committee. Discussion and vote on endorsement of procedures for handling unresolved cases of disputed use of data extracted from WorldCat – OCLC Membership Committee: Wilbur Stolt, Director of Libraries, University of North Dakota; Poul Erlandsen, Head of Section, The Royal Library – CULIS, Denmark; and Bruce Newell, Member, Board of Trustees
• Factors involved in setting Global Council meeting dates and locations 2012 – 2014
• Announcement of Global Council Virtual meeting June 2011 |
| 11:20–11:30a.m. |
|
Recognition of Departing Delegates – Jennifer Younger and Jay Jordan |