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About Us
Vision & MissionOur Vision To enable relevant, vibrant, sustainable libraries for every community. Our Mission WebJunction is a cooperative of library staff sharing and using online resources that enable us to identify and embrace appropriate technologies and apply them to our daily work. To sustain this effort, we partner with library and cultural heritage organizations and those that support them in meeting their objectives through effective use of collaborative, web-based technologies. HistoryThe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded OCLC Online Computer Library Center a three-year grant to build a portal for public libraries and other organizations that provide public access to information. Building on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's five-year Library Program, which has provided over 40,000 computers with Internet access to more than 10,000 libraries across the United States and Canada, WebJunction was initially the work of five organizations, led by OCLC. Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit organization that provides computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, and preservation services to more than 56,000 libraries in 91 countries and territories across the world. For the initial grant, OCLC partners for the WebJunction project were:
During the initial grant period, OCLC was responsible for managing the project, building the technology, and hosting the service. Our core service is built entirely on open source technologies, including Java, Apache, and Linux. Some of our applications are plugged into WebJunction through web services. WebJunction still works with representatives from our original partner organizations in many different capacities. WebJunction is now supported in part by OCLC, grants from IMLS and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, our partners in state library agencies and other library service organizations, and by the library community (yes, that means you). PartnersWe currently have Community Partner relationships with State Library Agencies in Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois; Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont, and Washington. Each Community Partner has their own customized version of WebJunction, and you can read more about the program here. We also host a community partnership with Libraries for the Future's EqualAccess Libraries program. In addition to our community partners, we also host Communities of Practice related to a variety of topics of interest to library staff. State library partners and grant-funded programs such as WebJunction's Spanish Language Outreach and Rural Library Sustainability programs are making use of web pages, content development, discussions, and e-learning tools to form communities of library practitioners who are committed to developing expertise and best practices in a particular subject area using the WebJunction environment. The Government Information in the 21st Centuryproject is the latest addition to the Community of Practice lineup. This continuing education program funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, serves to train reference and public services librarians and library workers in the use of government information resources. The program will initially focus on five states: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. We also have current partnerships with organizations to provide specialized content and technology tools to our members. We work with LogoIsoph to offer our Learning Management tools, Mindleaders to offer a number of our online courses, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to offer the original PAComputing site, and Microsoft to offer our online programming and support our Learning Partner beta program using their LiveMeeting online conferencing software. Finally...we're proud of our partnerships with our Moderators, Editors, and Advocates from the library community. You can also check out these Member Spotlights on some of our most active members. Current ProjectsTechAtlas: funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, TechAtlas provides libraries with a free web-based technology management and planning tool. We have customized TechAtlas for the needs of libraries like yours, allowing you to organize a technology team and develop a technology vision, create an inventory of your computer equipment and resources, and assess your technology management practices, including computer and network security, staff technology skills, and public access computing services. Spanish Language Outreach: funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this project provides training grants to all fifty states to develop a community of interest at WebJunction around providing the best possible access to public access computers for Spanish speakers. Rural Library Sustainability: funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this project provides training grants to all fifty states to develop a community of interest at WebJunction around sustainability, technology, and advocacy for small and rural libraries. E-Learning Institute: funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this program provides online courses and training resources for library managers, trainers and front-line staff who are implementing, creating and engaging with e-learning. The E-Learning Institute grew out of our direct experience working with library organizations as they create and implement e-learning. By working together, the library community can improve the quality and effectiveness of e-learning, while reducing its cost. iMPACt Learning Program: funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this program is being created to improve the sustainability of public access computing programs in libraries through better management, maintenance, troubleshooting and patron assistance. WebJunction will launch a competency-based program focused on these areas through both a directed learning model and just-in-time learning model. E-Learning Clearinghouse: funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal of the E-Learning Clearinghouse is to provide the most comprehensive, consolidated source of information about available online courses and programs from all types of providers for the library field. This will be accomplished through the launch of a web-based, searchable database of online continuing education courses and academic programs targeted to information workers. Course and program offerings cover a wide range of topics from Information Security Management to Library Technology to Ready Reference. Finding courses and programs is made easy by the variety of targeted search options. Accessing courses and programs is made simple through links to provider course catalogs. You can find more detail about any of our current projects in their respective sections of WebJunction, or in the Partners & Projects pages of our Community Center. Pressroom & Promotional Materials
For current promotion materials, please visit our Advocates area of the site. Publications
Advisory CommitteesWebJunction
E-Learning
Staff
WebJunction Team - Seattle
WebJunction Team - Dublin, Ohio Job OpeningsIf you'd like to keep an eye on our upcoming employment opportunities, we generally have position openings located in either Seattle, WA or Dublin, OH. We post those openings on OCLC's main site, PNLA's job listings page, iProJobs (ListServ) and on Craig's List (Seattle). Terms of UseRead our Terms of Use and copyright statement here. This page can also be accessed by clicking on the copyright line in the footer of any WebJunction page. |
STAFF PROFILES
William Archer, Director, Technical Development |
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