OCLC Research: 2015 Activity Report

#oclcresearch

OCLC Research supports the work of the Membership and Research Division by forging breakthroughs in library practice and benefits OCLC Members with evidence, insight and thought-leadership for an increasingly complex and changing network environment. We have collaborated with partner librarians and information experts to move our research agenda forward and have shared our knowledge with the library community.

OCLC Research: 2015 Activity Report highlights significant accomplishments of OCLC Research in five thematic areas.

• Understanding the System-wide Library
• Research Collections and Support
• User Studies
• Data Science
• Scaling Learning
  

Download US Letter .pdf

Key progress

Understanding the System-wide Library

Learn about:

• our exploration of the collective collection with Research Libraries UK (RLUK),
• our work in supporting stewardship of the evolving scholarly record and
  
• our evidence confirming the continued use of interlibrary loan.

Research Collections and Support

Review:

• our suggestions for reinforcing researcher and university reputation management,
  
• the improvements possible in the curation and management of special collections, research data and born-digital library materials and
  
• our first steps in exploring the discoverability and use of Web archives.

User Studies

Discover:

• what we’ve learned to date about how digital visitors and residents engage with technology and their expectations for library services and systems,
• how design thinking and ethnography clarify what users do outside of the library and
• ways libraries can help researchers reuse data.

Data Science

Analyze:

• our progress enriching the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF),
• our leadership in extending Schema.org for library data and
• our seminal linked data publications to understand challenges involved in publishing library linked data.

Scaling Learning

Examine:

• the expansion of our library learning resources,
• our utilization of grant funding to empower libraries and
  
• our support for strengthening and sustaining professional development to create innovative library service.

The report presents a story of achievement and contribution. It also represents the significant value that OCLC Research provides to the OCLC enterprise, OCLC members and the larger community.