OCLC Acquires 24/7 Reference Services

The Curmudgeony Librarian writes “The world of online virtual reference took an interesting shift as two of the largest services merged. The California based Metropolitan Cooperative Library System MCLS has merged its 24/7 Reference service with the Online Computer Library Center OCLC, the Ohio based library network. Noted for its bibliographic resources, OCLC also oversees QuestionPoint, another virtual reference source. According to sources, this merger will combine features of both systems into a new software platform, which should arrive in 2005. Current contracts will remain as is until then.”