OCLC Updates

WorldShare Interlibrary Loan to Replace WorldCat Resource Sharing
After more than 2 years of work that has touched nearly all parts of our organization, the new OCLC WorldShare™ Interlibrary Loan service is scheduled for release to libraries in the United States on March 12. Following initial availability in the United States, WorldShare Interlibrary Loan will be released worldwide in June. All WorldCat Resource Sharing users must complete their transition to the new service by December 31, 2013, when OCLC will end access to the WorldCat Resource Sharing service.

WorldShare Interlibrary Loan will replace WorldCat Resource Sharing for libraries with an OCLC Resource Sharing subscription.  The new service simplifies interlibrary loan workflows and expands fulfillment options so that interlibrary loan becomes just one of a number of options for delivering library resources to people who need them.

The addition of OCLC’s global interlibrary loan service to the WorldShare Platform gives more than 9,000 additional member libraries access to the Platform.  In WorldShare Interlibrary Loan, the Platform supports new features that require interoperation with other applications, such as the display of lender costs from the Policies Directory and display of item availability from a library’s ILS.  In the future, additional integration with other WorldShare applications will benefit libraries that subscribe to multiple WorldShare applications.

At release, WorldShare Interlibrary Loan will provide core interlibrary loan functionality.  By May, functionality in the new service will be at parity with functionality in the current WorldCat Resource Sharing service in addition to features unique to the new service.  In the coming months, the addition of new features will support expanded delivery options that will help libraries meet the changing needs of their users. The WorldShare Interlibrary Loan website [link to new site] provides a list of planned enhancements.

OCLC is providing training and documentation resources to support library staff learn the new service.  This includes group- and country-specific training programs. OCLC’s WorldShare Interlibrary Loan team has worked with staff in OCLC regional offices and administrators of groups in the United States that share a resource sharing subscription to develop training schedules to meet the needs of groups or regions.  Working through group administrators, we are encouraging library staff to attend training with other members of their groups.

When we announce US availability on March 12, librarians can let us know of their interest in starting to use the new service by submitting a registration form.  By the end of March, we will direct new users to set up accounts for WorldShare Interlibrary Loan to the “Where are you from?” area of our new account system.

Information about WorldShare Interlibrary Loan, including training and documentation resources, is available on the WorldShare Interlibrary Loan and OCLC Training and Support websites.  These sites will be updated regularly with information about functionality, future plans and user stories.

We continue to reach the majority of our resource sharing members through the OCLC-SHARING-L listserv.  Members may register for email updates through this listserv at www3.oclc.org/app/listserv.

We will begin to distribute messages to library staff in the United States on March 12, followed by a news release and ongoing updates about the service to the resource sharing community.

If you receive WorldShare Interlibrary Loan questions from librarians outside the United States, please confirm the start of their transition to the service in June.  NOTE:  You may forward questions from EMEA librarians directly to Katie Birch at .

New OCLC Website
As many of you have noticed, there’s been a change in the look and organization of content for www.oclc.org. There have been some changes made to navigation, although users will still be familiar with most of the major categories on the site.

The most significant change is the creation of a central user support and training center. This puts all our publicly available documentation, support and training content in one place.

Please note that our URLs have changed. The OCLC team is working to improve redirection from old URLs to new URLs and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. If you are not redirected using your existing bookmarks, please take the opportunity to update your bookmarks. Many of the items you may be looking for, such as the OCLC Policies Directory and Usage Statistics, are in the Librarian’s Toolbox.

If you would like to give us feedback on the new site, please send us an email at .

OCLC Symposium Recording Now Available
If you missed the OCLC Symposium at ALA Midwinter 2013, which included keynote speaker Alistair Croll’s presentation on “The Implications and Opportunities of Big Data,” you can watch the recording online.

Issue 7 of OCLC Research Quarterly Highlights Now Available

This periodic bulletin gathers items from the previous quarter of work in OCLC Research, the OCLC Innovation Lab and the OCLC Research Library Partnership. Issue 7 highlights include:

• Lorcan Dempsey on system-wide organization
• Titia van der Werf on innovation in information services
• Four featured prototypes, nine publications released during the quarter.

View the issue.