Dublin, OH -- 3 November 2020. Québec university libraries that are grouped together within the library Subcommittee of the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI) are now managing, sharing and searching their collections through a single union catalog built on OCLC's WorldShare Management Services library services platform.
The Québec university library partnership (QUL) has created a union catalog for the entire Québec university community with the help of BCI and OCLC. The WorldShare platform makes it possible for the libraries to expand cooperation among QUL; and enhance the user experience through an expanded, merged union catalog accessible through a bilingual search interface.
Students and faculty from the Québec universities are now able to search the collections of all 18 libraries through a single search tool, Sofia. The new Sofia search capability makes it easy to locate documents among the collections of Québec university libraries in real time, showing which institutions hold the document, in which languages, and allows requests for the documents to be made within Sofia, while complying with user licenses of each institution.
"A steady increase in digital resources over the past decade has fundamentally transformed the library environment," said Bernard Bizimana, President of the BCI Library Subcommittee and Director of the HEC Montréal Library. "This is why the libraries of 18 Québec universities joined forces to set up a shared cloud computing service platform and to offer simplified and intuitive access to their collections. We believe that WorldShare Management Services will help us to seamlessly share resources in a variety of formats and languages."
WorldShare Management Services (WMS) is a cloud-based library services platform with WorldCat as its foundation, which allows library staff to draw on the collaborative data and work of libraries worldwide for more efficient workflows. WMS also enables staff to better manage resources in all formats and to provide their users with improved access to the library's collections and the world's knowledge.
"WorldShare Management Services is helping Québec university libraries achieve their goals by working collaboratively and more efficiently," said Bruce Crocco, OCLC Vice President, Library Services for the Americas. "We are grateful for the opportunity to work with this large group of francophone and anglophone university libraries in Quebec in order to demonstrate OCLC's capacity to serve ARL, academic libraries of all sizes, and bilingual library groups. The successful partnership between OCLC and the Québec university libraries will benefit the students and faculty of these great institutions for many years to come."
"Creation of this new union catalog on the WMS platform required staffs from the Québec university libraries and OCLC to work together closely over the past year," said Crocco. "Restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic made this effort more challenging. These dedicated professionals remained focused and stayed on course to complete the project on time, despite the pandemic."
The WMS library services platform for the Québec university library partnership has been live since summer in advance of fall classes.
About BCI
The Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI) is an organization representing Québec universities. A forum for discussion and consultation, the BCI monitors, analyzes and makes representations to government authorities, as well as to other organizations and the general public. The BCI works to improve the Quebec university system from a social responsibility perspective.
About OCLC
OCLC is a nonprofit global library cooperative providing shared technology services, original research and community programs so that libraries can better fuel learning, research and innovation. Through OCLC, member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the most comprehensive global network of data about library collections and services. Libraries gain efficiencies through OCLC's WorldShare, a complete set of library management applications and services built on an open, cloud-based platform. It is through collaboration and sharing of the world's collected knowledge that libraries can help people find answers they need to solve problems. Together as OCLC, member libraries, staff and partners make breakthroughs possible.