Graduating from engineering school and joining IBM were just two things of thousands which happened 51 years ago. Another was the beginning of OCLC. Over the decades the name of the organization has changed a number of times. Like IBM, Apple, and many other companies, the full original name has changed to something simpler and easy to remember. Most important is what it does, not what it is called. When it comes to OCLC, the libraries of the world know what it does. Libraries connect people to the information they need to solve problems. OCLC, the global library cooperative, helps thousands of the libraries make information more useful and accessible. Libraries and OCLC believe what is known must be shared, and working together, they make breakthroughs possible. I am privileged to serve as Vice Chair of the OCLC Board. If you are not familiar with OCLC, take a look here.

Being a global organization, OCLC occasionally has a board retreat somewhere other than its Dublin, Ohio headquarters. This year we met in Amsterdam. The entire trip involved six days in Amsterdam and four days in Barcelona, Spain. The trip was 50/50 business and pleasure. The picture above is from the research library (70,000 books) at the famous Rijksmuseum. Next week I will have many pictures to share and some comments about what I learned during the trip.