Director of Penrose Library elected as regional delegate to Global Council

Dalia Corkrum

Dalia Corkrum, director of Whitman College’s Penrose Library, has been elected as an Americas Regional Council (ARC) Delegate to the Global Council of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC).

OCLC describes itself as a “nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs.”

One of just 14 newly-elected ARC delegates, Corkrum helps represent more than 22,000 OCLC members from libraries and cultural heritage organizations in Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States. Two additional Regional Councils represent OCLC members from the Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.

“I’m very humbled to be selected as one of the delegates,” said Corkrum, who has spent the past five of her more than 30 years as a librarian at Whitman. “I think it really speaks to Whitman’s standing among liberal arts colleges.”

Timothy Kaufman-Osborn, provost and dean of the faculty echoed Corkrum’s sentiment. “Her election is a real tribute to Dalia as well as an honor for the college,” he said.

As an ARC delegate, Corkrum is responsible for facilitating member-to-member discussions among OCLC members, and reporting member feedback on OCLC products, services, programs and policies to the Global Council. One such OCLC service familiar to many people at Whitman is WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources.

“Whitman faculty and students use WorldCat all the time,” said Corkrum of the service that is cooperatively produced and maintained by OCLC’s large network of members. “We couldn’t function without it.”

Her three-year appointment was announced on June 29 as part of OCLC’s first annual meeting since implementing its new governance structure, which is now organized into three regional bodies reporting to a Global Council.

More information about the election, OCLC and the ARC is available at www.oclc.org/us/en/councils/americas.