Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC)

[Dillon,Leslie]

This message is being cross-posted. Apologies for
the duplication.
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Subject: Cooperative Online Resource Catalog
URL: http://purl.oclc.org/CORC


ALERT!

At ALA Midwinter, you have several opportunities to learn how you can
participate in an exciting research project beginning this year at OCLC: the
Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC) project.  We at OCLC think this
project contains seeds that can grow into a resource as important to
libraries as WorldCat is today.  This can only happen, however, with the
active participation of all kinds of libraries around the world.  Besides
developing a new resource this project will develop new models of
collaboration among libraries and between OCLC and libraries as well as new
products and services to enable this collaboration. Come hear about how OCLC
is working with libraries to create the organizational infrastructure for
this growing information mix.

( ONLINE RSVP and event details can be found at http://purl.oclc.org/CORC  )

CORC: Project Overview for Cataloging
FRIDAY, January 29, 9:00am - 11:30am
Philadelphia Marriott, Salon K

CORC: Project Overview for Library Managers
FRIDAY, January 29, 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Philadelphia Marriott, Salon K

CORC: Resource description tools built with OCLC SiteSearch software
SATURDAY, January 30, 8:00am - 9:30am
Holiday Inn Express Midtown, Terrace Ballroom

CORC: Resource description tools built with OCLC SiteSearch software
MONDAY, February 1, 8:00am - 9:30am,
Holiday Inn Express Midtown, Terrace Ballroom


WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ...

These presentations will provide a view of research and products in
development at OCLC that will facilitate this cooperative effort.  The
research and development activities will support a cooperative effort to
build a common knowledge base.  They will also support the generation of
locally customized portals capable of guiding patrons through the
increasingly complex information environment. 

BACKGROUND

The library user is, as Walt Kelly said through his comic book character
Pogo, "surrounded by insurmountable opportunity" -- an often overwhelming
information environment. In addition to the traditional information sources
(catalogs, abstracting and indexing sources, print journals, books, and
reference sources), the user now faces multiple electronic versions of these
sources and an entirely new source of information, the Web.  

Libraries are rapidly moving to integrate all types of electronic resources
into structures that guide their users in this complex environment.
Library-based gateways, or "portals", are among the most promising
approaches. Creating and maintaining truly inclusive portals is too enormous
an effort for any single library.  In fact, the level of effort demands a
new co-operative effort among libraries.


CORC - Cooperative Online Resource Catalog

This pilot project just getting underway at OCLC brings together automated
tools for selection, description, and classification with librarians
understanding of users needs and the effective organization of information.
The project will provide the libraries and their users with resources that
can be integrated into the local portal site like dynamically-generated
pathfinder pages and descriptive records for the local catalog as well as a
central catalog of Web resources. 


How can I participate at ALA?

If you're interested in attending any of the events at ALA Midwinter, please
complete an ONLINE RSVP at http://purl.oclc.org/CORC/ALARSVP.

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Taylor Surface                          e-mail: taylor_surface at oclc.org
Program Director, CORC                      phone: +1 614 761 5145
OCLC Online Computer Library Center       fax: +1 614 718 7497