Producers of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) bibliographic database had a contest in 1997 - to describe how their database impacted their users. Entries were limited to 500 words. I entered, didn't win, but went to a nice OCLC luncheon at the American Library Association in Chicago later that year.
Picture an island chain where geologists monitor a volcano that has erupted continuously for 13 years. Atop Mauna Kea, an extinct volcano rising some 31,000 feet above the seafloor, astronomers huddle in groups to gaze through the largest telescopes on earth. In fields and valleys cooled by trade winds and heavy rains, agricultural specialists conduct tests to improve crop yields and battle invasive insects. In rain forests, biologists study the bizarre results of evolution in isolation, while archaeologists are kept busy at prehistoric digs that seem to be just about everywhere.
Welcome to the Island of Hawai'i and to the University of Hawai'i. Though we are the most geographically remote of any islands in the world, our faculty and students thrive because of our ability to rapidly access information. Through the magic of T1, ethernet, fiber optics and personal computers, the vast resources of the OCLC Online Union Catalog are brought to our windswept shores.
Supplying information to a wide variety of research interests is no easy task. No library can acquire and house everything. But services like FirstSearch make linking users to information easy. OCLC Online Union catalog has helped me win many a round of the age-old, good-natured game of "stump the reference desk!" Before OCLC Online Union Catalog's arrival at the reference desk, I secretly dreaded this game, a favorite of faculty everywhere. Now, armed with my Online Union Catalog talisman, I rise to the challenge and play along.
Recently, a professor asked me to locate an obscure title on hex sign artistry she remembered seeing in a county library in rural Pennsylvania. She was accompanied by another professor who was looking for a copy of a musical score originally written in Ladino, and published in Zagreb in 1939. In seconds, I was online with WorldCat through OCLC's new web service. My fingers flew over the keyboard as the two chatted. In less than two minutes, I informed one that Jane Zook's Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Signs at the Lancaster County library was the book she remembered.
Turning to her companion, I asked if he wanted the Romanized Ladino version of the score with Croatian and French translations. Playful smirks faded. Though happy, they were dismayed that I won the round so easily. With printouts in hand, they nodded and left. I also used the web's E-mail feature to send the citations to them, just in case they misplace their printouts. We know how absent-minded professors can get.
What does the OCLC Online Union Catalog mean to me? It has leveled the playing field for librarians in far-flung places. Whether you work in the middle of the Pacific or the middle of Manhattan, verifying and locating items is easy AND affordable. The OCLC Online Union Catalog has come a long way from "3-2-2-1," "message not clear" and my personal favorite, "request impossible!" I thank all of you at OCLC who have worked so hard to deliver a product that makes my work easier, more satisfying, and just plain fun!
Kevin M. Roddy, 1997
published in What the OCLC Catalog Means to Me: A Collection of Essays. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, 1997.