OCLC PICA was formed in January 2002 by the integration of Pica BV and OCLC Europe, Middle East and Africa, a division of OCLC Inc. in Dublin (Ohio, US).
Pica was founded in 1969 as a cooperative library membership organization with the aim of automating the cataloguing activities of participating academic libraries. In 1986 Pica became an independent legal body called the Stichting Centre for Library Automation, Pica.
Since the beginning of the nineties, Pica has concentrated on the following two main activities: automating libraries and developing online information services to end-users. In addition, the integrated Pica infrastructure has been sold to Germany and France. In 1996 the articles of association of the Foundation were changed to Stichting Pica. In 1999 the activities of Stichting Pica were split off and placed in a Dutch limited liability company known as Pica BV. Since 2000, the majority of the OCLC PICA shares were held by OCLC Inc with the remaining shares being held by Stichting Pica. In 2007, OCLC purchased the remaining 40 percent in OCLC PICA and completed its acquisition of shares.
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, headquartered in Dublin, Ohio is a not-for-profit organisation that provides computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing and preservation services to 41,000 libraries in 82 countries and territories. OCLC was founded in 1967 to improve access to the world's information and reduce information costs, and conducts ongoing research to develop technologies to support that mission. OCLC Europe was established in Birmingham, UK in 1981 as a division of OCLC Inc. In 1998 the name was changed to OCLC Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In 2005, OCLC PICA acquired Sisis Informationssysteme GmbH in Oberhaching, Germany, and Fretwell-Downing Informatics Ltd (FDI) in Sheffield, UK. Sisis was established by Siemens in 1997 and evolved out of Siemens' library software activities that it had started in the lated 1970s. FDI was founded in 1992 when founder Anthony Fretwell-Downing set about developing software that would cope not only with high volumes of information, but also with data across a wide range of media and from diverse, local and remote sources.
OCLC PICA has its headquarters in Leiden, the Netherlands; regional offices are based in Sheffield and Birmingham, UK; Oberhaching near Munich, Germany; Paris, France; Basel, Switzerland; Footscray, Australia; and Overland Park, Kansas, USA. Sales/support offices are also located in Cologne and Berlin, Germany. We have 3 software development centres based in Leiden, Oberhaching and Sheffield.
OCLC PICA employs about 250 staff.
