Detail map of Columbus, Ohio, United States,Athens, Ohio, United States Overview map of Columbus, Ohio, United States,Athens, Ohio, United States

A: Columbus, Ohio, United States, B: Athens, Ohio, United States

Alden Library at Ohio University Becomes the First Library to do Online Cataloguing, Using OCLC

8/26/1971

On August 26, 1971 Alden Library at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio became the first library to do online cataloging, using the OCLC system on a mainframe at Ohio State University in Columbus. That first day Alden Library catalogued 133 books online. 

The first year Ohio University used the OCLC shared cataloging system the university increased the number of books it catalogued by 33% while reducing its staff by 17 positions through attrition.

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