The Orbis Cascade Alliance and OCLC are working together to migrate the Alliance's Summit union catalog to a consortial borrowing solution based on the integration of WorldCat.org, VDX, WorldCat Resource Sharing and a new circulation gateway in time for the beginning of the 2008-2009 academic school year.
The Orbis Cascade Alliance will implement a WorldCat Group Catalog with an interface based on WorldCat.org. This union catalog will present the 28-million-volume collections of the 35 Alliance member institutions at the top of results sets, followed by results from the rest of WorldCat, the world's largest online database for discovery of items in libraries.
"We are excited to be working with OCLC to develop a next generation technical platform for Summit," said John F. Helmer, Executive Director, Orbis Cascade Alliance. "OCLC's vision for the future is an ideal fit with the Orbis Cascade Alliance's strategic agenda, which calls for implementation of a next generation discovery and delivery platform and a commitment to standards-based cross-platform functionality. Alliance libraries are very clear in their user-centered approach to service and we view OCLC as an ideal partner for the long haul—a partner that shares our values and excitement about the development of first-rate services to students and faculty."
The migration of Summit to OCLC's consortial borrowing solution will include an immediate initiative to increase the accuracy and comprehensiveness of member library holdings in WorldCat and the implementation of a resource sharing system that combines the best of ILL and circulation capabilities and workflows.
Alliance member libraries also will have the option to implement WorldCat Local, a new service that combines the cooperative power of OCLC member libraries worldwide with the ability to customize WorldCat.org as a solution for local discovery and delivery services.
"This initiative will offer our users a better discovery experience and allow them to move seamlessly from our collections to the even larger collections available in WorldCat through interlibrary loan services,” said Lee Lyttle, Chair, Orbis Cascade Alliance. "We also look forward to a better discovery experience with enhanced searching and social networking functionality. All of this is an important strategic direction of the Alliance moving our members closer towards becoming part of a more global library. These are exciting developments that we know will benefit all faculty, students and staff of our member institutions."
View news release: http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/20089.htm
(OCLC Abstracts)
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