Membership Reports

This report examines the economic, social and cultural impact of public libraries in Canada.

Libraries at Webscale is a report to the library community about the impact of the Web on our rapidly changing information landscape, with opinions and ideas from industry analysts, thought leaders and educators.

This paper describes OCLC's steps to make it easier to find items in WorldCat and get them from OCLC member libraries.

The report is based on a multi-year study funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS); Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; and OCLC. A rich resource for further exploration of this important topic, it includes valuable statistics, lists of references, additional readings, and specific recommendations for what libraries and librarians can do to move VR forward in local environments. Today's students, scholars and citizens are not just looking to libraries for answers to specific questions—they want partners and guides in a lifelong information-seeking journey. By transforming VR services into relationship-building opportunities, libraries can leverage the positive feelings people have for libraries in a crowded online space where the biggest players often don't have the unique experience and specific strengths that librarians offer.

In this new report, OCLC explores how changing contexts impact perceptions and behaviors concerning libraries and information sources. In 2005, OCLC published Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, a report on how information consumers perceive of and use libraries, search engines, Web sites and other emerging information sources. Five years later, the technology and economic environments are vastly different, and the information consumer is even more empowered. Americans have made lifestyle changes during the recent recession. They are spending less in some areas while not sacrificing in others. And they are using libraries to help fill some of the gaps for items and services they can no longer afford.

Learn what has changed in the past five years and what perspectives and behaviors remain the same.

This new report provides complete details about the Geek the Library pilot campaign, including results from qualitative and quantitative research, and insight from participating public libraries. The pilot campaign and the research were funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This report examines the economic, social and cultural impact of libraries in the United States with particular attention paid to the role that libraries play in providing assistance to job-seekers and support for small businesses.

This report summarizes the findings from research conducted by OCLC on what constitutes quality in library online catalogs from both end users’ and librarians’ points of view.

OCLC was awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to explore attitudes and perceptions about library funding and to evaluate the potential of a large-scale marketing and advocacy campaign to increase public library funding. The findings of this research are now available in the latest OCLC report, From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America. Though this study was based on data from the United States, there are findings in the report that could be applicable to any library seeking to understand the connections between public perceptions and library support.

This OCLC membership report summarizes the findings of an international study on online social spaces, including social networking attitudes and habits of both end users and librarians. This international study on social networking, privacy and trust opinions surveyed the general public in six countries—Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States—and library directors from the U.S.

A subset of the December 2005 OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report, the 396 college students who participated in the survey range in age from 15 to 57 and are either undergraduate or graduate students. The college students were from all of the six countries included in the survey. Responses from U.S. 14- to 17-year-old participants have also been included to provide contrast and comparison with the college students, as these young people are potential college attendees of the future.

This report to the OCLC membership summarizes findings of an international study on information-seeking habits and preferences. The study was conducted to help us learn more about: library use; awareness and use of library electronic resources and Internet search engines; use of free vs. for-fee information; and the "Library" brand.

This update to the 2003 Five-Year Information Format Trends report (below) examines the "unbundling" of content from traditional containers and distribution methods, making information formats secondary to the information they hold.

The Scan, acclaimed in the library community, is a comprehensive high-level view of the current information landscape and the significant issues and trends facing libraries and other public-serving institutions.

In this snapshot of the economic impact of libraries, facts and figures compare their value as an economic engine, destination, logistics and information provider, and employer.

Read this snapshot of format trends for popular, scholarly, digital and Web resources that are reshaping how information in distributed and consumed.