On May 5th, a number of the 2013-2015 ARL Leadership Fellows gathered in Dublin, Ohio to exchange information with OCLC staff. The ARL Leadership Fellows program is an executive leadership program designed to develop future senior-level leaders in large research libraries. This is the third time that OCLC has hosted an ARL Fellows group.
The agenda was collaboratively built based on requests for topics that the Fellows put forward — our jam packed day included an overview of OCLC’s mission and structure, a view of the “collective collection” and shared print management, OCLC business partnerships, WorldShare Management Services and WorldCat Discovery Services, and an overview of OCLC Research projects such as managing researcher IDs, the evolving scholarly record, and some early research on research library restructuring and reorganization. Additionally the fellows had an open ended discussion with OCLC President and CEO Skip Prichard.
It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with this group — prior to this meeting, I had only met a handful them, and this was a great way to meet a fantastic group of fellow professionals.
The ARL Fellows who visited OCLC were:
- Annie Bélanger, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Academic Excellence, University of Waterloo Library
- Janet Bishop, Coordinator for Archives and Special Collections and Associate Professor, Colorado State University Libraries
- Cecilia Botero, Associate Dean, George A. Smathers Libraries, and Fackler Director, Health Science Center Libraries, University of Florida Libraries
- Paul Bracke, Associate Dean for Assessment and Technology, Purdue University Libraries
- Diane Butler, Director, Information Technology and Access Services, Rice University Library
- Pascal Calarco, Associate University Librarian, Research and Digital Discovery Services, University of Waterloo Library
- Patrick Deaton, Associate Director for Learning Spaces and Capital Management, North Carolina State University Libraries
- Meredith Evans, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Library
- Evelyn Frangakis, Aaron and Clara Greenhut Rabinowitz Assistant Director for Preservation, New York Public Library
- Bill Hook, Associate Dean of Libraries, Vanderbilt University Library
- Melissa Just, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services, Rutgers University Libraries
- Simon Neame, Associate University Librarian, University of British Columbia Library
- Susan Parker, Deputy University Librarian, University of California, Los Angeles, Library
- Tim Pyatt, Huck Chair and Head, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University Libraries
- Neil Romanosky, Assistant Director for Administration, Health Sciences Libraries, New York University
- Meredith Taylor, Assistant Director for Organizational Development, University of Texas Libraries
- Michael Vandenburg, Associate University Librarian, Queen’s University Library
(You can see the full roster of amazing fellows and their bios here.)
Many thanks to the OCLC staff who helped me plan, and gave presentations which made this successful visit possible:
Bill Carney, Carey Champoux, Lorcan Dempsey, Brian Lavoie, Doug Loynes, Janet Mason, Jim Michalko, John McCullough, Andrew Pace, Merrilee Proffitt, Skip Prichard, Karen Smith-Yoshimura
Merrilee Proffitt is Senior Manager for the OCLC RLP. She provides community development skills and expert support to institutions within the OCLC Research Library Partnership.
