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OCLC of Dublin gets world’s libraries connected

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Sunday July 8, 2012 9:35 AM

Robert L. “Jay” Jordan is president and chief executive of Dublin-based OCLC.

Robert L. “Jay” Jordan joined millions of Americans in celebrating the Fourth of July last week, but his independence day has yet to arrive.

If all had gone according to plan, Jordan, the longtime head of Dublin-based OCLC, would be entering his second week of globetrotting, golf-playing, motorcycle-riding retirement right now.

The nonprofit library-services cooperative, formerly known as the Online Computer Library Center (and, before that, as the Ohio College Library Center), announced a month ago that Utah businessman Jack B. Blount, 60, would succeed Jordan as president and chief executive last Sunday.

Two weeks ago, however, the OCLC’s board of trustees abruptly reversed course.

In a one-page statement, the board said it had concluded that “it is in the best interest of OCLC to have Jay Jordan continue serving in these capacities.” The statement, which offered no explanation for the decision, said Jordan, 69, had agreed to postpone his retirement.

During a recent interview with Mike Kallmeyer, host of ONN-TV’s Ohio Means Business, Jordan didn’t discuss OCLC’s decision regarding Blount. He did, however, talk about the contribution OCLC has made — and will continue to make — in building a global information society.

An edited excerpt:

Q: OCLC has been described as a “global library.” How do you define that?

A: Well, one of our taglines is “The world’s libraries. Connected.” So, if you think about the founding premise of OCLC, which was really to build a platform on which libraries could cooperate, that’s what we do: We connect national libraries, academic libraries, public libraries (and) school libraries.

Our ultimate dream is to have every library in the world connected, so that every citizen on the face of the planet can get access to information.

Q: Why is it so important for you to achieve that goal?

A: Well, if you think about free societies, access to information is pretty crucial. So the ultimate vision is, literally, to make as much information (as possible) accessible everywhere. ...

I was doing a talk in Delhi, India, and whether they have all of the infrastructure perfectly in place or not isn’t that important, because they have about 800 million cellphones in India. And you’re like, “Wow, could we push a lot of information — or allow them to pull the information — into those devices, wherever they are, (be it) a farmer in the field or a cabdriver.”

Q: It’s amazing how far OCLC has expanded its reach in 45 years. Let’s go back 45 years — to 1967 — and to the genesis of the idea: How did it start?

A: Well, interestingly, it wasn’t librarians. It was the presidents and provosts of 54 academic institutions in Ohio that said, “Gee, we’ve got these computing devices over here” — which were, by today’s standards, a little primitive, but more primitive was typing little cards. You’re probably not old enough, Mike, but librarians were typing little cards, redundantly around the world, and putting them in little drawers so that their users could come in, open the drawers and then go try to find a book.

So they hired this librarian from Yale University, Fred Kilgour, and said, “Is there a better way?” And, literally, 45 years ago, Fred’s concept was a “cloud-computing” company. That wasn’t even in the lexicon at that point, but that’s what he invented — a platform on which libraries globally could cooperate and share information with each other and, obviously, with their patrons.

Q: I’m just old enough to remember the card-catalog system. But go back to the late ’60s. Using computers to catalog information had to be revolutionary. I mean, people probably had no idea what (OCLC’s founders) were talking about.

A: Exactly. And, of course, the computing footprint was immense, so our building out in Dublin was (customized) to house all these monstrous devices. They took up 44,000 square feet. They probably could have heated all of Dublin.

Q: And now OCLC has a stellar reputation worldwide.

A: I would hope so. You know, I was just walking in with one of the other interviewees today, and he said, “I’ve kind of heard of you guys.” So I was joking with him, and I said, “If you bump into a librarian in Bangkok, they can probably give you a 20-minute dissertation on who OCLC is and what its reputation is and so on.”

Q: It is interesting that librarians or professors around the world would know exactly what OCLC is, and yet, maybe, to someone in your own backyard here in Columbus, you’re not so much on the radar.

A: Put that down as one of my failures as CEO. I’ve tried to get us out into the community as much as possible and so on, but, that’s right — it’s hardly a household discussion here.

Q: Let’s talk about your future. You have to be proud of the work you’ve done at OCLC.

A: I’m proud of the work that the employees have done. I get all this credit for it, but we know who did the work — 1,250 employees in 23 offices around the world.

To your other question: What am I going to do (after retirement)? I’ve got a long bucket list. Maybe I can get my golf handicap down a tad. I’d love to continue to travel internationally; I love it, and my wife loves it, too. And, you know, I own a Harley that hasn’t gotten much runtime lately.

 

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