Ohio inventions and firsts · First · 1971
OCLC shared cataloging
OCLC was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center under Frederick Kilgour; the first online shared cataloging was done at Ohio University's Alden Library on August 26, 1971.
At a glance
- Year
- 1971
- Company
- OCLC
- Place
- Dublin, Franklin County ZIP 43017 · Dublin · Franklin County
The story
In the 1960s libraries each cataloged the same books separately, copying cards by hand. A shared computer catalog could let one library's work help all the others. Ohio college leaders joined to build one.
The Ohio College Library Center was set up on July 5, 1967, with Frederick G. Kilgour, a Yale medical librarian, as its first executive director. On August 26, 1971, Ohio University's Alden Library became the first library to catalog online through OCLC.
At first OCLC served only Ohio schools. In 1978 it opened to the nation and changed its name to the Online Computer Library Center; in 2017 it became simply OCLC, Inc.
Now a nonprofit cooperative in Dublin, Ohio, it serves more than 30,000 libraries in over 100 countries, runs WorldCat (described as the largest online library catalog in the world) and manages the Dewey Decimal Classification. Revenue was about $217.8 million in 2020-21.
Timeline
- 1967-07-05: The Ohio College Library Center is established. (Ohio) source
- 1971-08-26: Ohio University's Alden Library becomes the first library to catalog online through OCLC. (Athens, OH) source
- 1978: OCLC expands nationally and changes its name. (Dublin, OH) source
- 2017: The name becomes OCLC, Inc. (Dublin, OH) source
What it changed
- Serves 30,000+ libraries in 100+ countries.
- WorldCat is the world's largest online library catalog, per Wikipedia.
Why it matters
WorldCat.
Further reading
Sources
Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.
