Another awe inspiring day. The headquarters of OCLC first with presentations from senior staff plus a tour of the computer centre which use to take up 3 floors but which now takes up one with plenty of space. The tec spec very impressive., lots of security and evn robots harvesting the tapes. They have a few methods of diaster recovery including the tapes as a last resort. Any IT person would be thrilled to see and hear about this opeeration. OCLCs public purpose is to further access the worlds information and reduce the rate rise of library costs. They have 1.6 m holdings with 72 collections in 171 countries. NLA have recently uploaded their holdings, so this presumably means that all libraries with holdings on Libraries Australia must be members. They did a search for Harry Potter and received a response from Australia using postcode 2100 ( and all libraries near this would be searched) in less than a second. Leichhardt, Ashfield and Bankstown Library holdings appeared. Question why no others like Warringah who upload to LA? There are 20,000 users at any one time. Worldcat aims to be a gravitational hub for libraries and also a switch to a particular library. Speaker mentioned that Trove was a showcase for the world. Also spoke about their move to cloud computing. All very interesting and something worth further investigation. Mentioned that before cloud computing 70% infrastructure and 30% initiative. So cloud computing should reverse this. Worldcat local provides single search and delivery with lots of databases including among many 18 from Ebsco British Library and Gale coming.
We also looked at their library and all of us swooned as we got to touch and see the original Melville Dewey with his handwritten scribbles all through it. It was unbelievable especially for former cataloguers. Took lots of pictures which I hope come out.
In the afternoon we went to Ohio State University set in beautiful grounds with beautiful buildings including the library which reopened after extension, modification and refurbishment. 4 stories, open atrium beautifully furnished, lots of space and technology. Quiet study spaces, group study rooms, library classrooms all quite overwhelming. Once again have taken lots of pictures but unfortunately unable to upload so hopefully we can catch up with the pictures in Washington.
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