EBSCO Information Services Announces Austin Community College the Winner of its EBSCO Solar Grant
~ EBSCO Information Services Providing Up to $150,000 Grant For Highland Learning Center Campus Library to Install Solar Array ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — June 24, 2016 — EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is announcing the winner of its EBSCO Solar grant. Austin Community College (ACC) District’s Highland Campus Library in Austin, Texas has been selected as the winner of the grant which will cover up to $150,000 of the cost of installing a solar array. The grant will allow the Library to install solar panels and reduce its electricity expenditures.

Austin Community College District’s President and CEO Dr. Richard Rhodes says the Highland Campus Library is a headquarters for innovation among ACC libraries and the college is committed to minimizing its impact on the environment and reducing its dependence on nonrenewable energy. “Being able to install a photovoltaic is a great opportunity to continue to meet the sustainability practices outlined by the ACC Board of Trustees. EBSCO’s willingness to fund this project pushes us forward faster.”

The Library is located at ACC’s Highland Campus, which opened in August 2014 in north central Austin and serves more than 5,000 students. The campus is located on the site of the former Highland Mall which ACC purchased and remodeled into a college campus. The U.S. Green Building Council awarded the campus LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification for sustainable design and construction. The project has received other awards including the Associated Builders and Contractors Central Texas Chapter Award for Excellence in Construction; the Urban Land Institute’s 2015 Impact Award for Innovation; and the Design Award from the American Institute of Architects Austin Chapter.

ACC Library Services is a collaborative system of information, reference, research, and instructional and technical support whose mission is to support student success, classroom faculty, and teaching and learning. Each of the 11 ACC campuses throughout the district houses a library which provides students with study space, research workstations, course reserves, laptop and e-device checkout services and expert assistance from faculty librarians. ACC’s Dean of Library Services, Dr. Julie Todaro, says, “The Highland Campus Library houses the BatLab—a center for innovative Makerspace STEM activities—and is the perfect location for this environmental initiative. We are excited to partner with EBSCO in this exciting venture and with ACC’s forward-thinking Office of Sustainability.”

EBSCO Industries President and CEO Tim Collins says the submissions indicated that librarians are interested in alternative energies and programming that supports their decisions to go green. “So many of the submissions demonstrated a real interest in reducing the library’s environmental footprint and promoting those decisions to their communities. It was difficult to come up with just one winner but we believe Austin Community College will make great use of the money and its campus and community will benefit.”

Nearly 80 libraries submitted applications. Submissions highlighted the libraries’ current green activities, listed program requests and outlined how sites would get their campus or community involved.

About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 10,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 800,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.

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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com

DUBLIN, Ohio, June 23, 2016—OCLC has been named a winner of the Knight News Challenge, an initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, for a project that will promote collaboration between public libraries and Wikipedia and bring together authoritative library resources and contributors to one of the most popular information resources on the web.

The project was selected as a winner from more than 600 applications and 47 semifinalists. Launched in September 2015, the Knight News Challenge on Libraries is funding breakthrough ideas that help libraries serve 21st century information needs.

WebJunction, a program of OCLC Research, will work with a Wikipedian-in-Residence to deliver a national-scale training program that will build library staff skills to create and edit Wikipedia articles and to implement a Wikipedia outreach program in their local communities. This will include teaching U.S. public library staff the basics of Wikipedia editing and community norms, and giving library staff tools to engage local, experienced Wikipedians in related library events and activities.

“OCLC Research has been working with the Wikipedia community for years to make available authoritative library resources to support Wikipedia work,” said Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC Vice President, Membership and Research, and Chief Strategist. “WebJunction works closely with public libraries to promote collaborative learning. We’re grateful for this support that will help us bring together library staff and Wikipedians to offer a richer experience for information seekers.”

“Through this project, OCLC aims to help librarians update their skills, while increasing information literacy in communities and contributing to Wikipedia’s work to make knowledge more accessible to all,” said John Bracken, Knight Foundation vice president for media innovation.

The project will reinforce libraries as stewards of quality information, standard bearers for information literacy and curators of authoritative collections. While anyone can contribute to Wikipedia and its growing base of knowledge, knowing how to edit Wikipedia remains a mystery to most people, even information professionals. This project will equip library staff to become Wikipedia editors and to engage community members to join them and other local Wikipedians in collecting and extending access to knowledge.

Read the full project application on the Knight News Challenge website.

OCLC staff will participate, along with representatives from Knight Foundation, in a program with Knight News Challenge on Libraries winners on Saturday, June 25, during the ALA Annual Conference from 1–2:30 pm at the Hyatt Regency Orlando, Regency Ballroom T. More information is on the ALA website.

Knight’s mission is to promote informed and engaged communities. The foundation does that by investing in innovations in media and journalism, community engagement and the arts.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

About WebJunction
As an open learning community, WebJunction provides online resources, programming and learning opportunities that build the knowledge, skills and confidence that library staff need to power relevant, vibrant libraries. A program of OCLC Research, WebJunction designs and delivers transformational programs that connect public library service to community needs such as lifelong learning, health and wellness, and economic success. More than 70 percent of all U.S. public libraries across all 50 states have participated in WebJunction programs and learning since 2003.

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.

DUBLIN, Ohio, June 23, 2016—July 1, 2016 will mark the 5th anniversary of the general release of OCLC WorldShare Management Services, the first-ever cloud-based cooperative library management system. More than 500 libraries spanning 6 continents—Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America—have selected WorldShare Management Services as their library management system since its introduction.

WorldShare Management Services (WMS) is a complete, cloud-based library management system that offers all the applications needed to manage a library, including Acquisitions, Circulation, Metadata, Resource Sharing, License Management and a single-search Discovery interface for library users. WMS also includes a range of Reports that help libraries understand their activities and track key metrics over time.

As part of the OCLC library cooperative, WMS libraries work together through the WorldShare environment. Librarians are able to connect with one another, exchange best practices, share experience and expertise, and contribute ideas in a web-based OCLC Community Center, which is available 24/7. Librarians can also connect via in-person and virtual WMS Community Meetings.

“OCLC and member libraries worked together to build WorldShare Management Services, a cooperative effort to create the next-generation library services platform,” said Skip Prichard, OCLC President and CEO. “It’s not that often that we can affect real change in library automation systems, but WMS was the catalyst for real change. The unprecedented growth and adoption of WMS is due to the hard work and collaborative engagement of OCLC’s dedicated membership.”

"WMS is truly a library system for the 21st century,” said Lynne Jacobsen, Associate University Librarian for Information Resources, Collections and Scholarly Communication at Pepperdine University, which was among the earliest adopters of WMS. “WMS has enabled us to efficiently acquire, manage and provide access to electronic resources which now outnumber our print resources. We're able to effectively manage licenses that affect interlibrary loan. We're able to conduct sophisticated collection analysis, compare with peer institutions, and compile statistics for comprehensive library assessment.”

“We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our participation in the development of WMS,” said Jacobsen.
In the United States and Canada, more than 80 libraries of all types have joined the WMS community in the last year, including 4-year colleges such as Babson College, community colleges such as Weatherford College, and specialized academic institutions such as the Medical University of South Carolina.

Also in the United States, groups such as the West Virginia University Libraries, Potomac State College, WVU Institute of Technology, West Virginia Northern Community College and West Liberty University have joined the WMS community.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, noteworthy additions to the WMS community include several firsts: the Münster University of Applied Science was the first academic institution in Germany to join the WMS community; the College of Europe was the first institution in Belgium, the University of KwaZulu-Natal was the first in South Africa, and the American University of Sharjah in United Arab Emirates was the first in the Middle East.

In Australia and New Zealand, this past year Scion became the first institution in New Zealand to join the WMS community. Most recently, The Northern Territory Library, a major reference and research institution in Australia, selected WMS for more than 50 libraries in the region.

Libraries worldwide are using WMS to share bibliographic records, publisher and knowledge base data, vendor records, serials patterns and more. With WorldCat at its foundation, WMS enables libraries to draw on the collaborative data and work of libraries worldwide for more efficient workflows. WMS also provides libraries with the unique opportunity to share innovation, applications, infrastructure, vision and success in serving their users.

More about WorldShare Management Services is on the OCLC website.