OCLC and OCLC PICA form one global organization

OCLC adopts new logo and worldwide brand identity

 View the New OCLC Logo

DUBLIN, Ohio, October 22, 2007—OCLC, the world’s largest library service and research organization, is uniting all offices under one name and visual brand identity to reflect a global enterprise with a unified strategy to serve libraries worldwide.

As a result, OCLC PICA, with offices in the Netherlands, Australia, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, will be known as OCLC.  By bringing together all offices under one name and identity, libraries worldwide can benefit from OCLC membership, research and an expanded portfolio around a comprehensive set of products and services.

“As OCLC PICA and OCLC become one global organization, libraries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa can be part of the world’s leading library service and research organization, capable of achieving the critical mass necessary to create Web-scale services to meet the growing needs and expectations of today’s library users,” said Rein van Charldorp, Managing Director of what will be OCLC Europe, the Middle East & Africa.

OCLC has created global engineering and global product management divisions, with eight engineering centers across Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States that will expand OCLC’s ability to innovate and create products and services libraries need at local, regional and global levels.

OCLC has also created teams of employees from various geographic regions, and has aligned activities in three major geographic areas: The Americas; Asia Pacific; and Europe, Middle East and Africa.  These organizational changes, along with the partnerships OCLC has made over the years, make possible this new strategy as one global enterprise.

The OCLC organization is now uniquely positioned to provide libraries with services at the point of need.  OCLC has continued to grow and attract new partners that have increased its resources and capabilities worldwide.  Each organization that has joined OCLC has contributed distinctive competencies, vision and innovation to the global organization.

“As we move to a single global brand identity, it is important to remember that the OCLC brand is more than a logo,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO.  “The new brand identity is the visual expression of the evolution of an organization that is now entering its 41st year.  OCLC was founded to further access to the world’s information and reduce library costs.  Those objectives remain fundamental to OCLC today.”

The OCLC global strategy represents an evolution of the cooperative that began as an intrastate group of 54 colleges and universities in the state of Ohio, USA, sharing resources to save money and eliminate duplication of effort.

About OCLC

Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation, library management and Web services to 60,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories.  OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world’s richest online resource for finding library materials.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

(Journalists who would like to use the OCLC logo can find print and Web versions here:  http://www.oclc.org/about/styleguide/logos.htm.)

OCLC and WorldCat are trademarks and/or service marks of OCLC, Inc.

Third-party product, service and business names are trademarks and/or service marks of their respective owners.

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