Competition and cooperation are two driving forces for the advancement of human civilization. Any one who is not interested in competition or cooperation will be left out and left behind.

Competition is a way of life in today's world. The capitalist society encourages competition. Individuals and companies alike, for the sake of survival in competition, must continue to improve their services and products, and as a result, the entire society prospers, at least economically. Cooperation in the form of monopoly or price-fixing is illegal in the capitalist world as it kills the spirit of competition. American people do not allow their governments to operate any business as they believe that the government-run business will be ineffective due to lack of competition. China has certainly experienced the vitality of this competitiveness in the past decade since her adoption of the "Reform and Opening Up" policy.

In the past decade, we have seen computers shrinking in size, increasing in power, and declining in price. We have also seen a rapid expansion of telecommunications networking at a reducing price. All of these good things happen only because of competition.

We witness competition not only in business alone. Competition appears in many forms. The Olympic Games is a form of competition, and so are college or university entrance examinations and presidential elections. Although competition advances human civilization, it also separates winners from losers. It can not, and does not produce win-win situation. As a result of competition, some are happy and others sad (Ji Jia Huan Le, Ji Jia Chou).

Competition is not always a good thing to have. As we all know, competition in the form of arms race among powers is a waste of limited resources that we have on this planet, and will bring massive destruction to humankind. Sibling rivalry is another form of competition that is not healthy. It will inscribe damaging scars in the heart of family members.

Is competition a proper driving force for the advancement of libraries and information centers? If librarians and information professionals compete and take pride in improving access to information for their patrons and in reducing the cost of the access, this limited sense of competition is healthy and a good thing to have. Competition is necessary only when there is not enough room for everybody to be a winner. However, the cost of competition is very high. Librarians and information professionals are not in the business to compete against one another.

Opposite from competition is isolation in the name of self-supporting. The Chinese saying, "making a buggy behind a closed door" (Bi Men Cao Ju) signifies an attitude that leads to failure. In view of ever increasing speed of transportation and telecommunications, we live in a global village. Interaction and interdependence are no longer a luxury or an option, unless one wishes to be left out and left behind.

In short, competition is in order when there is not enough room for everyone to be a winner, and therefore, competition is to separate winners from losers. On the other hand, cooperation is the only driving force that will make every participant a winner.

The benefit of cooperation is beautifully summed up in Ecclesiastes 4:12 of the Bible as follows:

Though one may be overpowered,

two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Cooperation among libraries and information centers makes every one a winner. Over 23,000 libraries in 63 countries and territories that are users of OCLC can testify the benefit the cooperation, as OCLC represents the most successful story of cooperation of libraries and information centers throughout the world.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a successful story of library cooperation. It grew from a regional cooperative network in the State of Ohio, USA to a national network in the USA and then further grew to what it is now: an international network of over 23,000 libraries and information centers in 63 countries and territories. The evolution of the names of OCLC is indicative of its growth in these three stages. The original name of OCLC was Ohio College Library Center when it was founded in 1967 as a cooperative regional network to serve 54 college and university libraries in the State of Ohio, USA. The name was changed to OCLC, Inc. in 1977 when it expanded beyond the State of Ohio to become a national network in the United States of America. Its current name, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated, was adopted in 1981 when it extended its services beyond American border. Its membership and services are open to all interested libraries and information centers around the world.

OCLC maintains not only the largest computer and telecommunication network of libraries and information centers in the world, but also the world's largest database of bibliographic records and location information. The OCLC database, known as the OCLC Online Union Catalog, currently consists of over 35 million unique bibliographic records covering all subject areas in 370 languages and in the following nine formats: books, serials, sound recordings, visual materials, music scores, maps, archives & manuscript control, computer files, and mixed materials. In addition, the OCLC Online Union Catalog contains over 600 million location symbols of libraries throughout the world that hold these materials. This large database along with OCLC's online systems benefits libraries and information centers throughout the world in many ways, but I will focus my discussion in three areas: shared cataloging, resource sharing, and online access to the world's information.

Shared Cataloging

Cataloging is a specialized activity of library professionals. It requires subject and language expertise as well as cataloging training and experience. Libraries collect information in a wide spectrum of subjects and languages, but no catalogers possess adequate knowledge of all subjects and languages. Therefore, if libraries are to be self-sufficient in cataloging, each library would have to hire a large group of catalogers who can cover every subject and every language of the library collection. In the absence of cooperation among libraries in cataloging, the costly and time-consuming cataloging activity of the same item would be repeated as many times as the number of libraries holding that same item. It would be a terrible waste of human as well as financial resources. It is obvious that cooperation among libraries in the area of cataloging is a must, rather than an option. The PRISM Service, one of the OCLC's four online systems for shared cataloging and resource sharing purposes, makes it possible and feasible for libraries worldwide to share the wisdom of catalogers and the burden of cataloging. When one of the OCLC users has cataloged an item and input that record into the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the record becomes accessible to all other OCLC online users instantaneously. As a result, each item needs to be cataloged only once, and the same cataloging task never needs to be repeated by any other OCLC user. In other words, all OCLC users can benefit from the wisdom and expertise of that cataloger, and thus save time and cost.

As a result of this international cooperation in the area of shared cataloging, OCLC users are cataloging approximately 80,000 titles a day and are able to find a matching record in the OCLC Online Union Catalog for an average of 95% of the titles being cataloged. In other words, only 5%, on the average, will require original cataloging by each cataloging library.

Resource Sharing

One of the key objectives of library networking is to foster resource sharing among libraries. It is obvious that no library can be self-sufficient as far as the collection development is concerned. On one hand, no library has unlimited financial resources to purchase all the materials they want, and on the other hand, not all the library materials they want are available for purchase. Therefore, in order to improve library' information services, libraries must be inter-dependent and support one another.

Although the size of library collection, or ownership of materials, will continue to be one of the criteria by which the quality of libraries is to be measured, however, in the electronic library era, accessibility is a more important measurement of the effectiveness of information services. This resource sharing cooperation program among libraries makes "libraries without wall" a reality. OCLC users, through the PRISM-ILL (Inter-Library Loan) function, borrow approximately 20,000 titles of library materials each day from one another.

Online Access to the World's Information

FirstSearch Service, another online system operated by OCLC, provides online access to over 60 most popular databases by end users. There have been debates on the merit of centralized systems vs. decentralized systems, and remote access to information vs. databases mounted locally. The debates have by and large based on the technical perspective. Technology naturally plays an important role in information service, however, the cost and the availability of human resources are equally, if not more important factors in the decision on the access to information. The FirstSearch Service has been the fastest growing online reference system in the world due to its user friendly interface and its low cost.

OCLC has been engaged in a number of international cooperation programs. Following is a brief list of the cooperation programs in Asia and the Pacific region that OCLC has been engaged in.

Cooperation with the National Library of China

During the period September, 1991 through April, 1994, OCLC and the National Library of China cooperatively created a machine-readable database of the National Bibliography of the Republican Era, 1911-1949.

The National Library of China spent two decades to locate the materials published between the fall of the Ch'ing Dynasty in 1911 and the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and to compile the National Bibliography which consists of over 120,000 titles. This collection represents a valuable source documents for the study of modern China. The National Library of China and OCLC cooperatively entered this bibliography in the OCLC database for use by China scholars worldwide, especially those in the Western world.

Henry Luce Foundation provided a grant of US$240,000 in support of this project.

The National Library of China sent 12 people to OCLC in two groups. Each group of six people worked at OCLC for a period of one year. In these two years, the staff of the National Library of China along with OCLC staff created a total of 32,032 records in the OCLC Online Union Catalog. OCLC sent a copy of these records in machine-readable form to the National Library of China. Following is a break-down of these records by subject.

Subject Area Group 1 Group 2 Total

Linguistics/Philology 2,910 2,910

Law 4,543 4,543

Philosophy and Psychology 4,034 4,034

Literature 3,456 14,942 18,398

Science and Technology 2,147 2,147

TOTAL 14,943 17,089 32,032

Cooperation with Tsinghua University

OCLC and Tsinghua University in Beijing entered into a cooperative agreement in February, 1996 whereby Tsinghua University has established an OCLC Service Center to extend the FirstSearch Service and other OCLC services to libraries and information centers in China.

Tsinghua University houses the network center of the China Education and Research Network (CERNET), which is the Internet arm in China for educational institutions. Presently, 108 universities are linked on the CERNET. The majority of the more than 1,000 universities and colleges in China are expected to be on the CERNET by the year 2000.

Tsinghua University is one of the finest institutions of higher education in China and its strength is in scientific research and technological development. OCLC's strategic alliance with Tsinghua University will help Chinese libraries and information centers meet the increasing needs for information as we head toward the 21st century.

K. Wayne Smith, OCLC president and CEO, called the strategic alliance "a significant milestone in OCLC's history." Dr. Smith will head a delegation to dedicate the OCLC Service Center at Tsinghua University which is scheduled for August 27, 1996.

Cooperation with Waseda University and Kinokuniya Company

In December 1995, OCLC loaded 282,980 Japanese bibliographic records into the OCLC Online Union Catalog. These records, which contain Japanese characters in addition to Romanized information, were originally created on the Waseda University Information Network (WINE) system at Waseda University Library in Japan and were converted from Japanese MARC to USMARC by the Kinokuniya Company for loading into the OCLC Online Union Catalog.

"The information in the valuable Waseda University Library collection should not belong to Waseda only," said Professor Takayasu Okushima, then library director of Waseda University and now the Waseda University president. "It shall be shared around the world, and OCLC provides an effective online system to promote the information sharing worldwide."

Waseda University Library agreed to provide the Japanese records to OCLC in exchange for an equal number of Chinese and Korean records from the OCLC Online Union Catalog.

Cooperation with National Networks

OCLC works cooperatively with national networks throughout the world in many ways.

OCLC and the National Library of Australia reached an agreement in September, 1988 by which the National Library of Australia and other users of Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN) can use OCLC Online Union Catalog for retrospective conversion of their collections. The National Library of Australia and ABN users will search the ABN database first, and will send to OCLC for matching records the titles that can not find a match in the ABN database. Records so obtained from OCLC may be loaded into the ABN database. ABN plans to provide a gateway to the OCLC Online Union Catalog for ABN users, not only for retrospective conversion, but also for cataloging of current acquisitions.

OCLC is discussing with New Zealand Bibliographic Network (NZBN) and Singapore Integrated Library Automation Service (SILAS) about the feasibility that NZBN and SILAS will each provide a gateway to OCLC for their respective users. Their users will search their respective database first, and when a matching record is not found, the search will transfer to OCLC Online Union Catalog for matching records. OCLC's PRISM Service will be utilized not only for cataloging and retrospective conversion purpose, but also for resource sharing on an international scale.

Many people would agree that cooperation, in concept, is a good thing to do. However, it encounters a great deal of barriers in practice. Ironically, many of these barriers are created by the people who believe in cooperation as a concept. To overcome these barriers becomes a challenge for librarians and information professionals. Following are some of the barriers to cooperation.

Culture

Culture is a way of life for individuals, institutions, and nations. Although men are created equal, it is beyond any doubt that some individuals, institutions, and nations, as a culture, are more likely to cooperate than others. Cooperation shall produce a common good for all participants, and it demands participants to give what they have, in order to take what they want. A culture that preoccupies with taking and resists sharing lacks the spirit of cooperation. Overcoming a culture that lacks a spirit of cooperation is a real challenge.

Nationalism

Although information does not know national boundaries, human who create, disseminate, and use information is nationalistic. Facing the challenge of accessing the global information, shall librarians and information professionals play the role of immigration officers to guard the national boundary?

Standardization

One of the prerequisites of cooperation is standardization. The standardization can include many things, such as cataloging rules, MARC format, subject headings, authorities, character sets, exchange codes, etc., etc. If everybody insists on maintaining their own home-grown practice, cooperation is not possible.

Infrastructure

The increasing popularity of personal computers and the Internet in the past several years has greatly improved the access to global information. Infrastructure plays a very important role in facilitating cooperation.

In the past twenty-some years, computers and telecommunications networking have greatly changed the way information is created, disseminated, and used. This trend of change will continue, and the rate of change will accelerate. Librarians and information professionals can no longer provide adequate information services by working in isolation within the four walls of their building. By working together, we can expand our horizon and deliver the needed information to further benefit our civilization.

In this age, people are excited about the advancement of technology. Technology, indeed, has brought a lot of good things to us. However, technology is simply a powerful tool in the hand of human. How true is the Chinese saying that things are done by human (Shi Zai Ren Wei). If we are to face the challenges and the opportunities of the future together, human rather than technology is the determinant factor. Human can take advantage of the powerful technology to facilitate cooperation. Technology can not change our culture, overcome our nationalism, or alter our inward perspective in order to promote cooperation.

How shall WE human being face the challenge of information service ahead: in isolation, competition or cooperation?

July 15, 1996