OCLC recently published The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition, described as “a comprehensive review of global issues surrounding research, learning and community as it relates to the future of libraries and other knowledge organizations.”
The 150-page report is based on interviews conducted with more than 100 knowledge experts around the world, representing a wide variety of organizations. According to OCLC, “The collective input from these interviews, in addition to literature review and extensive research, yielded a wealth of insights on the real, day-to-day issues facing information professionals.” The report, which is divided into five “landscapes”—social, economic, technology, research and learning, and library—covers such areas as funding, collaboration, digital archiving, e-learning, digital rights management, open source movements, the rise of web services in libraries and education, and scholarly publishing.
The document is available on OCLC’s website. OCLC also offers a print version for $15.
Posted January 23, 2004.