|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
Gregg Silvis elected to OCLC Council
12:04 p.m., June 5, 2006--Gregg Silvis, assistant director for library computing systems of the University of Delaware Library, recently was elected to the executive committee of the Online Computer Library Center's (OCLC) Members Council, the governing body of the world's largest library cooperative. Silvis' assignment, which was announced at the May OCLC Member's Council meeting in Dublin, Ohio, makes him one of only 66 executive delegates chosen from around the world to govern the OCLC Members Council. “It's a tremendous honor,” Silvis said of the nomination. Affiliated with OCLC since 2001, Silvis added that his new role with the organization will require more teleconferencing work. “I'll still be attending the three OCLC meetings each year,” Silvis said, “but I will do a lot more teleconferencing, because the OCLC has delegates living in several different time zones.” Silvis said that he earned his nomination by consistently contributing to discussions at OCLC meetings and sharing ideas to promote the values of the OCLC. At the May meeting, he also made a three-minute presentation, on which his nomination partially hinged. Silvis said that he will be active with many different task forces, which are set up by the OCLC Members Council to monitor issues such as how to handle vast quantities of electronic content. He also will monitor trends, such as the rapid globalization of OCLC. “For many years, the OCLC cooperative focused primarily on the United States and Canada,” Silvis said. “Now it's expanding into Europe and Southeast Asia.” With the global expansion, there also has come an information expansion, Silvis added. Now used in 96 different countries by approximately 53,000 different libraries, the OCLC database contains 69 million records of holdings in libraries across the globe. “Two goals [of OCLC] are to reduce cost to libraries by sharing services, especially at this large scale, and to increase access to the world's information,” Silvis said. “It's marvelous to be involved in an organization that's at the forefront of the technological change that's shaping libraries. OCLC is doing things that affect libraries across the world and make libraries better places for our users.” Article by Becca Hutchinson |
|
|
