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OCLC in the Asia Pacific RegionAnthony W. Ferguson a & Andrew Wang ba University of Hong Kong Libraries , Hong Kong, Chinab OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. , Dublin, OH, USAPublished online: 09 Oct 2009.

To cite this article: Anthony W. Ferguson & Andrew Wang (2009) OCLC in the Asia Pacific Region,Journal of Library Administration, 49:6, 591-598, DOI: 10.1080/01930820903238586

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Journal of Library Administration, 49:591–598, 2009Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0193-0826 print / 1540-3564 onlineDOI: 10.1080/01930820903238586

OCLC in the Asia Pacific Region

ANTHONY W. FERGUSONUniversity of Hong Kong Libraries, Hong Kong, China

ANDREW WANGOCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc., Dublin, OH, USA

This essay provides an overview of both the accomplishments anddifficulties faced by OCLC as it has expanded in the vast Asia Pa-cific region. It describes the organizational changes as they evolvedas this previously North American collaborative organization ex-panded westward and details initiatives pursued in each of theAsia Pacific countries where it has operated. Finally, it examinesthe five major challenges yet facing OCLC in the region: the lackof bibliographic name authority files, competing classification sys-tems, competing MARC cataloging formats, the perceived high costsassociated with participating OCLC programs and services, and theneed for local vernacular products in addition to those developedlargely for the North American and European markets.

KEYWORDS OCLC, interlibrary Cooperation, Asia, Pacific

BACKGROUND

Any discussion of OCLC in the Asia Pacific region has to begin with the re-alization that this part of the world is big in every way. As Table 1 suggests,it is geographically larger, has more people, and includes more countriesthan any of the other continents/regions where the Online Computer LibraryCenter (OCLC) is operating. While on the surface, these figures suggest thegrowth outlook for an information services organization like OCLC is virtu-ally unlimited, these three factors: size, population, and political complexity,however, pose enormous challenges for OCLC as it seeks to accomplish itsgoal of “connecting people to knowledge through library cooperation.” Thegeographical distances between countries that must be visited by service

Address correspondence to Anthony W. Ferguson, University of Hong Kong Libraries,c/o: Marine Yip, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: ferguson@hkucc.hku.hk

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TABLE 1 Continents Compared: Size, Population, and Countries

Sq. KM 2005 Population No.(Millions) (Millions) Countries

Asia 44.6 3,879 46Africa 30.1 8,77 53North America 24.3 501 23South America 17.9 379 12Antarctica 13.2 0 0Europe 9.9 727 46Australia/Oceana 7.7 32 14

Worldatlas.com (2008).

representatives mean serious time and cost constraints. The large numbersof people translate into disparate kinds of needs that must be understood, letalone met for OCLC to succeed. Sixty countries mean the need to navigatethrough 60 different sets of cultural attitudes about the importance of infor-mation and libraries, scores of languages, and equally innumerable ways ofdoing business.

Another key factor that must be examined when discussing OCLC inthe Asia Pacific region is the amount of resources available for libraries. Akey reason for the success of OCLC in North America has been its ability tomake good on the promise to help libraries save money—or at least reducethe rate in the rise of library costs. To succeed in Asia Pacific libraries, OCLCmust also recognize that the librarians there also will want to experience costsavings. But this is no easy task. The differences in the levels of availablewealth between North America and parts of Asia Pacific are enormous. The2007 per capita GDP figure for the United States was $45,800 while thefigure for China was $5,300, and for Bangladesh $1,300 per person (CentralIntelligence Agency, 2008). If OCLC is going to help libraries in poorercountries save money, the range of services and products it offers not onlyhave to be different but also much less expensive.

Irrespective of all of these problems, OCLC is gradually assuming a largerpresence in the Asia Pacific region. Currently Asia Pacific has three repre-sentatives on Members Council: Beh Chew Leng, Senior Director, Libraryand Professional Services, National Library Board, Singapore; Jieh Hsiang,Professor of Computer Science, Director of the University Press and im-mediate past University Librarian, National Taiwan University Library; andVic Elliot Director, Scholarly Information Services and University Librarian,the Australian National University. Anthony W. Ferguson, the University ofHong Kong Librarian, after having served on Members Council for 4 years,will shortly begin his term on the OCLC Board of Trustees. OCLC now is atruly global library cooperative.

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ORGANIZATIONAL EXPANSION

In 1986, OCLC expanded its cataloging capabilities to support Chinese,Japanese, and Korean (CJK) scripts. This was a big step for OCLC if it wasgoing to globalize its library information services. This enabled them to gobeyond only providing information services in countries using the Romanalphabet.

OCLC was ready to move forward organizationally in that same yearwhen Japan hosted the International Federation of Library Associations andInstitutions (IFLA) annual meeting in Tokyo. At that time it made the strate-gic decision to open its OCLC Asia Pacific Office—still headquartered inOhio—but with eyes focused westward. The goals for this new office wereto extend OCLC’s services, to support library cooperation at the country/regional level, and to weave these country/regional cooperatives into theOCLC global cooperative fabric.

Since that time, OCLC has made real progress. It is now serving morethan 5,000 libraries in the region. In the fiscal year 2007–2008, which endedon June 30, 2008, OCLC provided library information services to institutionsin the following 24 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific region:Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China (Mainland), Fiji, Hong Kong, India, In-donesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, New Zealand, Pak-istan, Palau Islands, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka,Taiwan, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

On July 20, 2007, OCLC made another strategic decision when it es-tablished the OCLC Beijing Representative Office to better serve libraries inChina. One year later it inherited through acquisition two additional officesin Australia in Melbourne and Perth. OCLC now has a total of three officesin the region, in addition to the Asia Pacific office in Ohio, all focused onimproving the delivery of its services and programs.

MAJOR INITIATIVES

One of the main tactics employed by OCLC in the region has been to signagreements with existing library cooperatives in order to market itself tohundreds of libraries all at the same time. The following selective overview ofcooperative relationships entered into by OCLC’s Asia Pacific Office reflectsthis method of operation during the past 22 years since its establishment.Where no such opportunities presented themselves, they have worked withindividual libraries.

Australia

Through an agreement between the National Library of Australia and OCLCin 2007, the National Library began loading its national union catalog into

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WorldCat. Consequently, all 1,072 libraries contributing to the Australiandatabase became governing members and can participate in OCLC’s globalcooperative cataloging and resource sharing programs. This agreementbuilds upon OCLC’s earlier cooperation since 1994 with the Council of Aus-tralian University Librarians (CAUL) to provide FirstSearch services to alluniversity libraries.

China

Through a 2008 agreement between the National Library of China and OCLC,the National Library began using OCLC Connexion Service to catalog itscollections on WorldCat and to load its Chinese records into WorldCat forglobal resource sharing. This development builds upon earlier OCLC effortsin China (e.g., cooperation with the China Academic Library and InformationSystem (CALIS) universities in China to provide access to OCLC FirstSearchService and NetLibrary eBooks). A total of four libraries in China are nowgoverning members.

Hong Kong

As early as 1995, the Chinese University of Hong Kong had contracted withOCLC to bibliographically convert parts of its collections. Gradually, sevenof the eight universities in Hong Kong, making up the Joint University Li-brarians Advisory Committee (JULAC), joined OCLC as governing membersand both catalog all newly acquired titles on WorldCat and participate inits resource sharing activities. The year 2005 was a big year for Hong Kongand OCLC. In 2005, OCLC contracted with JULAC to share the latter’s HongKong Chinese Authority Name (HKCAN) project with libraries worldwideand in the same year many of Hong Kong’s academic libraries joined in onthe Super eBook Consortium that purchased 42,085 English-language OCLCNetLibrary e-books. This mainly Taiwan-promoted consortium was led by aHong Kong librarian who had formerly worked in Taiwan and included 42libraries from there and six from Hong Kong.

Japan

In 2002 OCLC established a relationship with Japan’s National Institute ofInformatics (NII), a consortium of 703 government and private universitylibraries for interlibrary loan services and another in 2005 for access to theWorldCat database. Following this agreement, one of these member librariesat Waseda University decided to load its post 1995 holdings into WorldCatand have continued to the present (Niimoto, 2004). Subsequently, five morejoined as OCLC governing member libraries in Japan.

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Korea

In 1999, cooperative agreements were established with the Korea Educationand Research Information Service (KERIS) to “provide online cataloging,interlibrary loan, and OCLC FirstSearch services to university students, fac-ulty members, and researchers in Korea” (Korea Education and ResearchInformation Service, 2008). Subsequently a collection of NetLibrary e-bookswas acquired for the use of students and faculty members at 70 universitylibraries. Only two libraries in Korea are governing members.

Malaysia

In 2002, the Sarawak State Library became the first library in Malaysia to joinOCLC as a governing member, and the Kolej Universiti Sains Dan Teknologifollowed a year later.

New Zealand

In 2007, OCLC signed an agreement with the National Library of New Zealandto load its union catalog into WorldCat and for all of its member librariesto participate in the global cooperative cataloging and resource sharing pro-grams. Because their bibliographic records continue to be added to theWorldCat database, all 285 libraries also are considered governing membersof OCLC. Additionally, since 1994 through cooperation with Council of NewZealand University Librarians (CONZUL), OCLC had provided FirstSearchservice to all the university libraries of New Zealand.

Singapore

In 2000, the Singapore Integrated Library Automation Services (SILAS) en-tered into a cooperative agreement with OCLC, the first such agreementwith OCLC in Asia and the Pacific region. Since SILAS loaded the nationalunion catalog of Singapore into WorldCat for global resource sharing andcataloging purposes, all of the 97 participating libraries in Singapore becameOCLC governing members. SILAS has also introduced OCLC’s FirstSearchService and WorldCat Collection Analysis Service to libraries in Singapore.

Taiwan

In 2006, OCLC entered into an agreement with 214 libraries to establish theTaiwan OCLC Governing Members Consortium. Previously, in 1999, OCLCforged a cooperative agreement with the Consortium on Core Electronic

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Resources in Taiwan (CONCERT) to provide FirstSearch to its libraries. Thiswas followed by an agreement in 2002 with the Taiwan eBook Network(TEBNET) to purchase e-books from OCLC NetLibrary, the first library con-sortium in Asia and the Pacific to establish such an agreement. Together,these agreements helped the libraries of Taiwan take an active part in OCLC’sglobal cooperative resource sharing and cataloging initiatives.

Thailand

In 2008, Thammasat University became the first OCLC Governing Memberin Thailand. This is a major step forward for OCLC in Southeast Asia. Earlierin Thailand in 2003, 30 private and public universities, the Thai UniversityeBook Net, and in 2004 another group, the University Network of Thailand(UNINET) had purchased OCLC NetLibrary e-books

SUMMARY AND REMAINING CHALLENGES

Enormous progress has been made since 1986 when OCLC decided to estab-lish its presence in the Asia Pacific region. It now has three offices focusedon the needs of Asia Pacific’s librarians and their readers, and there is rep-resentation from the region on its Members Council and Board of Trusteesgoverning bodies. OCLC has made agreements with four national catalogingorganizations to upload their records into WorldCat. In all, there are a totalof 1,717 governing member libraries in OCLC from the region.

While all of this reflects the progress that has been made, OCLC hasliterally only touched the surface. Asia Pacific’s huge territory, populationand countries all translate into the need for information and huge numbersof libraries. While there are no comprehensive directories of libraries in theregion, a review of online resources for just a few of the region’s countriesproduces numbers similar to the following: Japan 47,287 libraries, Korea11,754 libraries, and Malaysia 10,362 libraries. And these are small countriescompared to India, Indonesia, and China where the numbers of libraries aremuch larger.

With so many libraries, what are the major challenges that must be facedby OCLC? The following is only a partial list:

1. Authority files. Shared cataloging assumes shared authority files. Whenthat doesn’t exist, the work is much more difficult.

2. Classification schemes. The Dewey versus LC classification disagreements,when both numbers are in most shared cataloging records, do not anylonger amount to much in North America. In Asia Pacific, however, the

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picture is much more complicated and this poses a huge challenge for anorganization like OCLC, which thrives on homogeneity of need.

3. MARC formats. Contributing to and benefitting from the WorldCat biblio-graphic database assumes that everyone employs the same bibliographicrecord standards. There are multiple MARC formats just in the Chinesespeaking countries and the idea that everyone do things following thesame cataloging rules is seen as worthwhile but it is still novel idea tomany librarians in the region.

4. Money. Libraries in North America are attracted to OCLC because it makesgood on the promise to help save money. The prices of many OCLCservices, however, are simply beyond comprehension for the librariansin all but the well developed countries of Asia/Pacific. Librarians in thispart of the world do not see OCLC as a means of saving money. Thecosts of becoming a governing member are also seen as prohibitive: tojoin, a library needs to resolve the MARC format problem, agree to uploadall its new cataloging, upload its converted back files, and subscribe toFirstSearch WorldCat—all of these actions take resources. Unless thereis differential pricing and a rethinking of these requirements, OCLC’sexpansion will be restricted to just a small proportion of the region’slibraries.

5. Useful content. While the value of databases published in North Americaand Europe for the use of academic researchers is not debated by anyonein Asia Pacific, for most readers these materials are difficult to use and arenot written in the languages they use on a daily basis. For the librariansof the region, they also see these databases as enormously expensive. Inrecent years OCLC has made significant progress in this area, but the focushas been on marketing the vernacular databases of the region to Westernlibraries.

Each of these challenges is significant, but when you bring them all togetherthey are truly formidable. Can they be overcome? If the only reason whythey needed to be overcome was for the benefit of OCLC, their simultaneousresolution would not be likely. However, they are general problems that haveto be resolved whether OCLC exists or not. Yet, OCLC, based upon its wideranging experience with libraries and consortia in many parts of the worlddealing with similar problems, can increase the speed and quality of actionstaken to overcome these problems. But OCLC needs to help resolve theseproblems not just because it wants more markets for its services, nor justbecause these are libraries in need, OCLC needs to help solve these problemsbecause of the richness of the recorded human experience produced by thispart of the world and because of the geopolitical criticalness of the region.In fewer than 100 years, Asia Pacific has been the locale for three major warsand is where the world’s fastest growing economies are located. If OCLC is

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“The World’s Libraries Connected,” the libraries and materials found in thisregion must be part of this collaborative enterprise.

REFERENCES

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (2008). World Factbook. Retrieved Octo-ber 2, 2008, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html

Niimoto, K. OCLC Members Council power point report. (2004). Retrieved Octo-ber 2, 2008, from http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Lindon-17551-niimoto-OCLC-Libraries-Japan-NIIthe-National-Institute-Informatics-Services-NII-GIF-Global-as-Entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/

Korea Education and Research Information Service Forms NetLibrary eBooksConsortium. (2008). Retrieved October 2, 2008, from http://www.oclc.org/asiapacific/zhcn/news/releases/20030128.htm

World Atlas.com. (2008). The list. Retrieved October 2, 2008, from http://www.worldatlas.com/geoquiz/thelist.htm

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