The OCLC Research Library Partnership (RLP) is a multinational community of research libraries dedicated to improving library practice through professional development, collaborative research, and information sharing. The RLP offers libraries direct engagement opportunities in diverse formats, ranging from small group discussions and webinars to working groups and in-person events. Most activities are offered virtually, providing an affordable, accessible resource for library staff.

The RLP supports libraries as they evolve to meet shifting challenges and opportunities, drawing on the perspectives and expertise of partner organizations to drive collaboration and discovery of practical insights.

Together, we are shaping the future of research libraries.

Key programmatic areas

We develop research and engagement programs in four areas of high interest to research libraries:

• Next generation metadata
• Resource sharing and collective collections
• Unique and distinctive collections
• Research support

Across these programmatic themes, the RLP seeks to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion.

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Connecting research to practice

The RLP supports our affiliates in adapting research to local and community practice through:

• Knowledge sharing events
• Engagement  
• Thought leadership
• Strategic network partnerships
• SHARES resource sharing consortium

Knowledge sharing events

We facilitate webinars, small group discussions, and workshops to support sharing, learning, and professional development:

• Inviting RLP affiliates to share and learn about leading-edge activities in our Works in Progress webinar series.
• Hosting small group discussions to facilitate collaboration on common challenges. These topics are often inspired and co-developed by affiliates. An example is a recent discussion on Collections as Data.  
• Facilitating workshops to share, discuss, and apply OCLC Research outputs. An example is our popular Social Interoperability Workshop.
• Convening weekly unscripted town halls for participants of the SHARES resource sharing consortium and share syntheses of discussions with all consortium members.

Engagement

There are many ways for RLP affiliates to engage beyond event participation, including:

• Participate in a leadership capacity by serving on a group that shapes strategic programmatic discussions, such as the Metadata Managers Focus Group Steering Committee or the SHARES Executive group.
• Converse with peers in a standing peer learning group like the Metadata Managers Focus Group.
• Collaborate on research directly with OCLC Research, which might take the form of:
  • Serving on an ad hoc working group contributing to a specific research topic, like the Collection Building and Operational Impacts Working Group.
  • Spending academic leave or sabbatical time with us, like Jan Fransen (University of Minnesota) and Amanda Rinehart (Ohio State University), who served as co-investigators on research reports.
  • Serving as a visiting researcher in residence, like Thomas Padilla, who used his time with us to author the report Responsible Operations: Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI in Libraries. 
• Consult directly with RLP program officers who are available to share their expertise and offer guidance in our areas of programmatic focus. 
  
• The RLP seeks to prioritize RLP institutions in OCLC Research projects whenever possible.

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Thought leadership

The RLP regularly synthesizes and shares the results of our research and engagement activities, providing thought leadership to the field. We do this through:

• OCLC Research reports and publications
• Hanging Together, the OCLC Research blog
• Conference presentations and more

Strategic network partnerships

The RLP partners with key organizations supporting research institutions on both engagement and research activities in areas of common interest, including:

• LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche – Association of European Research Libraries)—Collaborating on a multi-year knowledge sharing and engagement program, Building for the future, to explore issues of importance to research libraries.
• euroCRIS—Partnering with the European community of practice for CRIS/RIM systems on research projects about research information management, yielding research reports like Practices and Patterns in Research Information Management: Findings from a Global Survey.