Friends of the UNCG Libraries

Several members of the library faculty and staff have recently consulted with other libraries to aid them in using WMS, our library software system. OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services (WMS) manages the ordering, processing, and circulation of library materials, along with holds, book renewals, print reserves, and similar user services. Darinlee Needham provided training on the serials component to the DeWitt Wallace Library at Macalester College.Terry Brandsma, Mary Jane Conger, Marcie Burton, Christine Fischer and Beth Bernhardt consulted with Loyola University of Chicago on the different modules of WMS and how they work. Cathy Griffith and her colleagues in Access Services have also been assisting Guilford Technical Community College in adopting WMS.

Terry Brandsma of the ERIT Department was recently elected to serve a two-year term (2014-2016) as one of the 4 co-chairs of the WMS Community Leadership Team.  While Terry’s work in this area is mostly transparent to those who use the library’s catalog, OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services (WMS) manages the ordering, processing, and circulation of library materials, along with holds, book renewals, print reserves, and similar user services. The WMS Community Leadership Team plans and hosts online meetings for the community of WMS users, and serves as the primary conduit for the community to provide feedback and suggestions to OCLC. Terry also recently presented at (and helped plan) the "2014 WMS Southeast Users Group Meeting", held at Brenau University, Gainesville, GA, on June 2-3, 2014.

You may have noticed a few changes to the library catalog recently. The new public catalog, using a product from long-time library system supplier OCLC, is known as WorldCat Local. In addition to supporting a user in finding books and other materials held here in Jackson Library, this Worldcat local catalog now searches collections of thousands of other libraries worldwide, and most of our electronic content such as e-journals, databases, and e-books. It also replaces our old Journal Finder product with a Journal A-Z list to help you find electronic journals available to UNCG users. While it is mostly transparent to those who use the catalog, we have also moved our library operations to OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services (WMS) to manage the ordering, processing, and circulation of library materials, along with holds, book renewals, print reserves, and similar user services. Why did we make these changes? Several years ago we realized that our old library systems were not being d...