OCLC Research Library Partnership update

This blog post summarizes recent Research Library Partnership accomplishments and upcoming programming as we look forward to new opportunities to learn, connect, and grow. Our team is working tirelessly to position partner libraries for continued success in an increasingly challenging and uncertain environment. These RLP resources are designed to support our partners through fiscal challenges, staffing shifts, and more.

The value of the OCLC RLP—what we’re learning

At the end of 2024, RLP team members interviewed the most highly engaged RLP institutions to identify what they value most about their affiliation. Partners highlighted these areas especially:  

• Professional development and skill-building support 
• Research support and collaboration activities 
• Investment in special collections and archives 
• SHARES and metadata management communities  
• Networking and community-building opportunities 

The Partners we spoke to appreciate our strategic guidance, accessible programs and resources, and targeted communication—advancing library trends while offering actionable insights for strategic and operational needs. We’re planning a survey for later this year that will help us understand if these opinions are shared across the Partnership. 

Exploring the role of AI in libraries 

Research libraries are exploring AI to enhance workflows and tackle operational challenges. Last year, our Metadata Managers Focus Group discussed “Getting ready for AI,” which helped inform our Transforming Metadata session at ALA 2024.  
 
While technical aspects are important, many conversations emphasize the leadership required for the responsible adoption of AI tools. To support this, we have launched the Managing AI for Metadata Workflows working group to provide practical guidance and support. 
 
As a team, we are committed to exploring how AI can support your work, and you can expect to see more from us in innovative research and programming across our programmatic areas.  
 
Our team has also helped share information about institutional AI applications, including the recent webinar, “Implementing an AI reference chatbot at the University of Calgary Library.” 

Gleaning insights to scale excellence 

In 2024, we launched new OCLC RLP Leadership Roundtables for special collections and research support services. These sessions have attracted an appreciative audience of Partners eager to share and compare local insights. To date, we’ve held over eight total meetings and engaged with over 130 senior leaders at 75 institutions on a range of topics: 

• Library support for open research 
• Responsible stewardship for special collections 
• Scaling research support services 
• Cross-campus collaboration in research support 
• Library support for bibliometrics and research impact 
• The evolving public services landscape in special collections 
• Advocacy and resourcing in special collections 
• Stewarding born-digital archival collections 

Interested in knowing more about these sessions? You’ll find summaries on Hanging Together

Leveraging research and learning investments 

The OCLC RLP is committed to offering opportunities to connect our research to your practice. Here are a few areas where our team is working to deliver actionable insights:  

Library Beyond the Library: This project builds on our influential Social Interoperability research to explore how libraries are engaging with other campus units and contributing to new institutional research priorities. Watch for webinars, insights, and other resources in 2025 to help your library learn more from this research. 

Reimagine Descriptive Workflows: OCLC has worked to implement recommendations based on this research, which interrogated the systems and structures behind library metadata practices. These include supporting locally preferred subjects in WorldCat Discovery and seeking community input in developing the WorldCat ontology. We’re also looking to what’s next—last year, a series of OCLC Research workshops in the United Kingdom highlighted the opportunity to broaden the geographic scope of this work, so we’ve engaged a group of RLP Partners in the UK and Ireland and will share findings from our efforts in the coming month. 

Inclusive collections: In 2023, we shared insights on how research libraries approach their collections to support goals around inclusion and serving community needs. We followed up with a series of webinars on strategies for inclusive collection development, including our webinar on “Diversifying library collections through student-led collection development” featuring Bryn Mawr College. This program provides students with a paid internship to gain hands-on experience in collection development and the book trade by selecting diverse books for the library, supporting local independent bookstores, and actively contributing to library acquisition. 
 
This week, we will continue this conversation with RLP Partners Bryn Mawr and University of Nevada, Las Vegas in what promises to be an impactful ACRL conference session, “Navigating Inclusive Collection Development: Strategies for Authentic Representation.” If you’re attending the conference, please add this session to your agenda and stop by to say hello to Merrilee Proffitt and our RLP Partner panelists 

Expanding the RLP community 

We’re excited to welcome the National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) and Hofstra University Libraries to the RLP. The SHARES network is also growing, with new members including Hofstra University, Syracuse University College of Law, University of Pittsburgh, and Vanderbilt University. These additions reflect the Partnership’s ongoing commitment to fostering a diverse and dynamic community. 

Looking ahead

Thanks to ongoing support and engagement from our Partners, the RLP program continues to evolve and grow. Together, we’re driving innovation and growth, addressing today’s challenges while preparing for the future. Here’s to a transformative 2025!