Member Update
The latest news and events from the OCLC cooperative
Announcement of Jay Jordan's retirement plans
Greetings:
At the OCLC President's Luncheon today in New Orleans, I announced that
Jay Jordan will retire as President and CEO on Jun 30, 2012.
As I stated in the attached news release, Jay wanted to give us
sufficient notice to provide time for a thorough search and a smooth
transition for his successor.
The Board is forming a search committee that will conduct an
international search for the fifth President and CEO of OCLC. The
composition of the Committee will be announced in the near future.
We will recognize and celebrate Jay's significant contributions to the
OCLC cooperative in the coming year.
In the meantime, as you might surmise, Jay intends to press on with the
implementation of new Web-scale services and continue to work hard on
behalf of the OCLC cooperative. Below is the text of the news release
that OCLC will distribute shortly.
Larry Alford
Chair
OCLC Board of Trustees
photo_jordan
Jay Jordan to retire as OCLC President and CEO
*New Orleans, Louisiana, June 27, 2011*---Jay Jordan will retire as
President and CEO of OCLC Online Computer Library Center on June 30, 2012.
The announcement was made today by OCLC Board Chair Larry Alford at the
OCLC President's Luncheon during the Annual Conference of the American
Library Association in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"Jay Jordan has informed the OCLC Board of Trustees of his desire to
retire as President and CEO in June 2012," said Mr. Alford. "Jay wanted
to give us sufficient advance notice to provide time for a thorough
search and a smooth transition for his successor. The Board is forming a
search committee and is preparing to launch an international search for
the fifth President and CEO of OCLC."
"Jay Jordan has presided over a period of remarkable growth and
innovation during his 13 years at OCLC," said Mr. Alford. "Under his
transformative leadership, OCLC has moved in new and exciting directions
to fulfill its public purpose of furthering access to the world's
information and reducing the rate of rise of library costs."
"Today is not a farewell," said Mr. Alford. "We will recognize and
celebrate Jay's contributions to the cooperative in the coming year. In
the meantime, it will be business as usual, and with Jay Jordan, that
means full speed ahead."
In his remarks at the OCLC President's Luncheon, Mr. Jordan stated: "It
has been an honor to serve the OCLC cooperative. OCLC is an exceptional
organization with an active and committed membership and a dedicated
staff. OCLC's Founder Fred Kilgour was fond of saying that OCLC was like
the first flight of the Wright Brothers---12 seconds off the ground.
That was 40 years ago. Today, our new WMS services are just getting off
the ground, and I look forward to handing off to my successor a strong
organization with an exciting set of opportunities."
According to Mr. Alford, the composition of the Search Committee will be
announced in the near future.
OCLC has had four presidents since its founding in 1967:
* Frederick G. Kilgour (1967-1980)
* Rowland C. W. Brown (1980-1989)
* K. Wayne Smith (1989-1998)
* Jay Jordan (1998-)
Mr. Jordan, 68, became OCLC's fourth President and CEO on May 8, 1998.
Since then, the number of libraries participating in the OCLC
cooperative has grown from 30,000 to more than 72,000. The number of
participating institutions outside the U.S. has increased from 3,200 in
64 countries to 16,215 in 170 countries. At the same time, the OCLC
cooperative has become global in its governance, with regional councils
in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa
sending delegates to a new Global Council.
Since 1998, the WorldCat bibliographic database has grown from 38
million records to more than 240 million, and the number of location
listings attached to those records has increased from 668 million to
more than 1.7 billion. In 2006, WorldCat became available to people
everywhere on the Internet.
Under Mr. Jordan's leadership, OCLC built a new technological platform,
introduced new Web-scale services and created a library advocacy
program. Here are highlights of OCLC's accomplishments since 1998:
* OCLC Connexion cataloging service launched on new technological
platform (2002)
* QuestionPoint virtual reference service (created with Library of
Congress) launched (2002)
* OCLC began distributing CONTENTdm digital collection management
software (2002)
* WebJunction online community for public libraries launched Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation (2003)
* OCLC launched advocacy program, published OCLC Environmental
Scan: Pattern Recognition (2003)
* Bibliothèque nationale de France, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Library
of Congress and OCLC started development of Virtual International
Authorities File that in 2011 will become an OCLC service (2003)
* OCLC Research made available at no charge an algorithm to convert
bibliographic databases to the Functional Requirements for
Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model (2003)
* OCLC Online Service Center launched (2005)
* Worthington (Ohio) Libraries contributed 1 billionth holding to
WorldCat (2005)
* WorldCat database becomes available to people everywhere on the
Internet via WorldCat.org (2006)
* WorldCat Collection Analysis, Terminologies service, WorldCat
Registry introduced (2006)
* WorldCat Local, which provides a single interface to a library's
collection, is introduced (2008)
* OCLC Developer Network created (2008)
* WorldCat became available on mobile devices (2009)
* WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway launched (2009)
* OCLC Web-scale Management Services began operation (2010)
Since 1998, OCLC has expanded its offerings through mergers and
acquisitions and focused operations through divestitures:
* WLN merged with OCLC; the WLN union catalog merged with WorldCat;
about 550 libraries in the Pacific Northwest and Canada became
OCLC members (1999)
* In 1999, OCLC acquired Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)
and divested it in 2004.
* RLG merged with OCLC; Research Library Partnership created (2006)
* OCLC acquired Openly Informatics (2006)
* OCLC Europe, the Middle East and Africa created through merger of
PICA B.V. (The Netherlands) and the former OCLC office based in
Birmingham, U.K. The new organization provides library management
systems as well as OCLC services.(2002)
* OCLC acquired DiMeMa, Inc., developer of CONTENTdm digital
collection management software (2006)
* OCLC acquired these library management systems: SISIS (2005);
Fretwell-Downing Informatics (2005); Amlib (2008); BOND (2011)
* OCLC acquired EZproxy authentication and access software (2008)
* OCLC acquired NetLibrary e-book platform in 2002 and divested it
in 2010
* In 2009, OCLC divested Preservation Service Center, which was
acquired in 1990.
OCLC has also fostered strategic alliances with a number of
organizations to make libraries and their collections more visible on
the Internet, including HathiTrust, Google, Microsoft, OAIster and Yahoo!
