and reliable access to library materials. Relations among these three organizations have at times been no better than cool. RLG’s and OCLC’s joint representations to the committee suggested that they see the value and necessity of working with each other in productive ways and with LC.⁶ Collaboration of this sort may not prove easy for LC, because decisions taken two decades ago led to the creation of a highly successful system whereby OCLC distributes catalog records to a wide variety of libraries, and these records include the very substantial body of cataloging created by LC. The results for users have been overwhelmingly positive, however, and the cost savings to the library community extraordinary.⁷ Great things have been achieved by LC, OCLC, and RLG, and it is time to look to the future in a trusting and collaborative spirit.

The committee also recommends that the Library reverse its tendency to become isolated and that it participate more actively in the library research community. The experience of installing the new Integrated Library System in 1999 (discussed in detail in Chapter 8) shows that even when the Library waits until a technology is well established and in use at other libraries, its size and scope make it hard to tailor the technology to the Library’s needs. The Library should look for ways to influence the technologies it will use earlier in their development cycle, ensuring that both library technology research and product development address issues of scale early on.

In order to succeed, it is necessary for LC and its leaders to be seen and heard widely in the library community in the United States and abroad. It is unfortunate, although understandable, that none of the three senior officers of the Library has chosen to dedicate time to becoming heavily involved with the library community. An influential group of national librarians meets privately at the annual meeting of the International Federation of Library Associations, but the Librarian of Congress seldom attends these meetings, and his absence attracts wistful comment.