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OCLC and Pica Foundation have announced the signing of a letter of intent that could lead, following negotiations, to a combination of forces in
serving the European library community. Both organizations intend to cooperate closely.
Pica Foundation will establish a new not-for-profit Dutch limited liability company (Pica B.V.) to which all the present activities will be
transferred. OCLC will through a graduated acquisition of part of the stock participate in the new Pica Company.
Pica Foundation, a cooperative, not-for-profit organization based in Leiden, The Netherlands, provides cataloging, interlibrary loan, local and
enduser services to about 1000 libraries in The Netherlands, Germany and France. OCLC is a non-profit corporation based in Dublin, Ohio, which serves over 33,000 libraries in 67 countries.
Both OCLC and Pica were founded in the late 1960s with similar missions and commitments. Today, information flows are global, and the collaboration
of the two organizations would expand and enhance the emerging global library network. Both organizations are dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information
costs.
Pica and OCLC agree that Pica will continue the development and support of its current products and services, including the further development and
support of Pica's local library systems, the central library system for cataloging, interlibrary loan and enduser services and its associated cooperation with its European partners: the Gemeinsamer
Bibliotheksverbund in Göttingen, the Hessisischer Bibliotheksverbund (Hebis) in Frankfurt, Die Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt (all in Germany) and the Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur (ABES) in
Montpellier, France.
According to the letter of intent, subject to satisfactory negotiations and approvals by both boards of trustees, the joining of resources of OCLC
and Pica Foundation would potentially result in a jointly owned organization that would provide information services and systems to European libraries and their users.
Subject to the conclusion of the due-diligence process, the parties hope to conclude an agreement and complete the transaction by late 1999.
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