DUBLIN, Ohio, January 16, 2012—OCLC has announced the launch of OCLC WorldShare License Manager, a new service to help libraries meet the increasing challenges and complexities of electronic resource management.

OCLC WorldShare License Manager offers a unique solution in that it brings together the two key features of electronic resource management—knowledge about licenses that govern their purchase and use, and linking technology that connects users to needed content in a single place.

Built on the OCLC WorldShare Platform and WorldCat knowledge base, License Manager helps library staff more effectively manage the selection, purchase and availability of databases and e-resources. This new service consolidates link resolution, subscriptions, licenses, vendor information, access and rights management to enable Webscale management, discovery and delivery of licensed and electronic resources.

License Manager is supported as a stand-alone service that integrates with other library management systems or can be integrated with OCLC WorldShare Management Services. License Manager resides on the OCLC WorldShare Platform that allows library staff and others to create applications to enhance current features and bridge information to other systems.

“WorldShare License Manager offers a new approach to cooperative library management of electronic collections,” said Andrew Pace, Executive Director for Networked Library Services at OCLC. “Electronic resource management can be complex and frustrating, especially while trying to maintain a comprehensive collection. And libraries that include License Manager as part of their OCLC WorldShare Management Services will gain centralized budgeting, ordering and receiving workflows related to licensed resources. And library staff will save additional time by managing access to all library resources in a single location—the WorldCat database.”

The WorldCat knowledge base holdings that power the License Manager’s linking functionality synchronize automatically with WorldCat. Once a library’s local data is present in the WorldCat knowledge base, that information automatically updates appropriate records in WorldCat.

License Manager also includes a globally maintained vendor information center and provides “license templates” for global management of public and shared licensing terms by staff at all participating libraries. Cooperative contributions to this resource of vendor information means that library staff have access to a richer repository of vendor data than they normally have at the individual library level.

Customizable workflows included in License Manager accommodate many aspects of electronic resource management, such as:

• Negotiation of licenses with content providers
• Evaluation of trial subscriptions
• Registration and configuration of access credentials.

In addition, License Manager will in the future include the analytics that can better inform library management decisions and collection development, making the most of investments and budgets. The COUNTER-compliant statistics, which are currently available in the OCLC statistics portal at www.stats.oclc.org, will be expanded to include aggregated reports on collections associated with those profiled in the License Manager.

“The way I’d describe OCLC License Manager is it’s a purpose-built license manager,” says Elliot Polak, Head of Library Technology, Norwich University. “It’s an ERM that streamlines workflow.”

The OCLC WorldShare License Manager is available as an annual subscription service. More about the License Manager is on the OCLC website at http://www.oclc.org/webscale/.