200 millionth record added 39 years after shared cataloging system was launched

DUBLIN, Ohio, September 2, 2010—The Bibliothèque nationale de France added the 200 millionth bibliographic record to the WorldCat database on August 27, 39 years after the OCLC online union catalog and shared cataloging system was launched.

The record describes “Je reviendrai à Montréal” (“I will return to Montreal”), a sound recording by Robert Charlebois made in 1993.  The 200 millionth record was added to WorldCat on August 27, 2010, only one day after the 39th anniversary of the launching of the OCLC online union catalog and shared cataloging system on August 26, 1971.

WorldCat continues to grow faster than ever.  In the fiscal year that ended on June 30, libraries added 56 million records to WorldCat.  For comparison, it took the OCLC cooperative:

• 31 years, from 1971 to 2002, to add the first 50 million records
• six years (2002–2008) to add the next 50 million
• 1.5 years (2008–2009) to add the next 50 million
• 10 months (November 2009–August 2010) to add the next 50 million, for a total of 200 million.

The phenomenal growth rate for bibliographic records is being matched by that of holding symbols in WorldCat, which represent the libraries that hold the items cataloged. The number of holdings surpassed 1.6 billion on June 4, 2010.  The OCLC cooperative hit 1 billion holdings on August 11, 2005.  It took the cooperative 34 years to get to one billion. Since then, libraries have added more than half a billion symbols in less than five years.

“This is a significant milestone for OCLC members, service partners and OCLC staff,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO.  “For nearly four decades, thousands of catalogers and librarians around the world have worked together on WorldCat, contributing records and holdings and enhancing their quality and accuracy.  Over that same period, we at OCLC have maintained the infrastructure that supports WorldCat against a backdrop of continuous technological change.  Working together, libraries, service partners and OCLC have created a unique and valuable resource for knowledge seekers everywhere.”

The 200 millionth record was created by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and was added as part of a major record loading project to reflect all of the national library’s holdings in WorldCat.  There are currently 40 national libraries adding digital images, national files and bibliographies to WorldCat.  Libraries worldwide benefit from the millions of records added to WorldCat from the world’s great national libraries.

“The presence of the Bibliothèque nationale de France records in WorldCat has been a godsend to the University of Ottawa Libraries,” said Mary Curran, Head, Cataloguing Services, University of Ottawa Libraries.  “Our chances of finding and loading a complete MARC record for French-language titles are now much better.”

About WorldCat
WorldCat is a database of bibliographic information built continuously by libraries around the world since 1971.  Each record in the WorldCat database contains a bibliographic description of a single item or work and a list of institutions that hold the item.  The institutions share these records, using them to create local catalogs, arrange interlibrary loans and conduct reference work.  Libraries contribute records for items not found in WorldCat using the OCLC shared cataloging system.

Since 1971, 200 million records have been added to WorldCat, spanning more than 6,000 years of recorded knowledge, from about 4800 B.C. to the present.  This unique store of information encompasses records in eight formats—books, serials, sound recordings, musical scores, maps, visual materials, mixed materials and computer files.  Like the knowledge it describes, WorldCat grows steadily.  Every second, library members add seven records to WorldCat.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs.  More than 72,000 libraries in 171 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials.  Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it.  OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources.  Search WorldCat on the Web at www.worldcat.org.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

OCLC, WorldCat and WorldCat.org are trademarks/service marks of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

Third-party product, service and business names are trademarks/service marks of their respective owners.

Institutions increase visibility, accessibility of unique digital collections

DUBLIN, Ohio, August 11, 2010—Repository managers from libraries, museums, archives and other cultural heritage and research institutions can now contribute metadata records for digital materials to WorldCat using the new, enhanced WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway, increasing visibility and accessibility of special collections, institutional repositories, and other unique digital content to Web searchers worldwide.

In July 2009, OCLC introduced the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway to users of OCLC CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management software.  Based on the OAI protocol, the Gateway enabled CONTENTdm users to upload the metadata of their digital collections to WorldCat.  Recent enhancements to the Gateway now make it possible for any OAI-compliant repository to contribute metadata to WorldCat to gain broader visibility for their digital content.

The enhanced WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway is freely available to institutions interested in increasing the visibility of their digital content through WorldCat, the comprehensive source for discovery of materials held by libraries, museums, archives and other cultural heritage and research institutions.  Visibility is increased through WorldCat.org, the Web destination for discovery of collections, and also through partnerships with Google, Yahoo! and an active and growing library developer network.

“OCLC and its member libraries are striving to develop WorldCat.org into a premier public resource for the integrated discovery of open access digital primary source and cultural heritage materials,” said Claire Cocco, Director, OCLC Digital Collection Services.  “The goal is to provide the necessary infrastructure, services and support to help maximize the visibility and integrated discovery of open repositories for all libraries, museums and archives.”

Designed for self-service use, the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway is a Web-based tool that enables repository managers to customize how their metadata displays in WorldCat.org and determine their metadata harvesting schedule—monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.  Additionally, it applies their institution’s “holdings symbol” to their records, thereby highlighting the unique information resources their institution is contributing to WorldCat.

“The Digital Collection Gateway has been very well constructed by the folks at OCLC,” said Mark Phillips, Assistant Dean for Digital Libraries, University of North Texas.  “Exposing digital collections through WorldCat is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be done to have this content understood and treated as first order content in libraries.”

There are more than 25 million metadata records for digital items currently accessible through WorldCat.org, most of which were contributed as part of OAIster, a union catalog of records representing open archive resources from around the world.  The number of digital records in WorldCat and their use continues to grow.  Since 2006, there have been more than 600 million visits to WorldCat.org and more than 36 million click-throughs to libraries.  With WorldCat.org, users are only three clicks away from an institution’s digital content.

“We are a museum and this helps us cross paths with library users,” said Tamara Georgick, Director of Information Technology at the Washington Historical Society.  “It is a much wider audience than we could reach on our own.”

To date, more than a half million metadata records have been entered into WorldCat through the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway.  A record for a thesis titled, “資料挖掘之導入與影響－以銀行業為例 (The Implementation and Impact of Data Mining),” from the National Chengchi University’s library marks the 500,000th record entered into WorldCat using the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway.  National Chengchi University is a public university located in Taipei City, Taiwan and is renowned for its teaching and research in the social sciences, business, communication, liberal arts and for its MBA programs.  The milestone record is from the National Chengchi University Theses and Dissertations Full-Text Imaging System.  The University’s library staff is harvesting the metadata from its theses and dissertations collections and its institutional repository into WorldCat to help increase the visibility of their collections worldwide.

More information about the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway can be found at www.oclc.org/gateway, or send an e-mail to digitalcollections@oclc.org.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 171 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials.  Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it.  OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources.  Search WorldCat on the Web at www.worldcat.org.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

OCLC, CONTENTdm, WorldCat and WorldCat.org are trademarks/service marks of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

Third-party product, service and business names are trademarks/service marks of their respective owners.

Dates and times:  The webinar is being offered at two times.  Please register for one session:
Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 10:00 AM EDT
Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 2:30 PM EDT

Topics Covered:

• The benefits of incorporating controlling into your cataloging workflow,
• An overview of the three different types of controlling (single, multi-control, control all),
• Use of fixed field elements in controlling,
• The scope of current controlling functionality,
• A review of current ‘known problems’.

Attendees are encouraged to submit an example of a problem encountered when working with a particular heading.  Examples received by Wednesday, August 18, 2010 will be presented during the session.  All submissions will be kept anonymous.  Please submit your example to deanr@oclc.org.

Prerequisite: Before attending the webinar, you should be familiar with controlling functionality in Connexion.  Attendees are encouraged to take the Controlling Headings in Bibliographic Records online tutorial prior to attending the session.

Audience: The session is primarily aimed at catalogers who currently use or are interested in using the Connexion controlling functionality.  Controlling is available using Connexion client or browser and functions in the same manner.  The Connexion client will be used during the webinar.

Presenter: Becky Dean, MLS, Product Analyst in OCLC’s Cataloging and Metadata Services Division, has worked with authority data projects at OCLC for many years.  She was part of the team at OCLC that developed and implemented the Controlling functionality in Connexion.  Becky is a past Chair of the ALA ALCTS/CCS/LITA Authority Control Interest Group.

This list provides a discussion forum for Batchload users, including Local Holdings Record Updating service (LHRUS) users.  Please use the list to ask questions of each other, share ideas and get practical advice for using Batchload.  Information about upcoming meetings, training, enhancements to the service and documentation updates will be distributed via the list.

Please continue to work with OCLC staff as you do today, and direct general questions to support@oclc.org and specific project related questions to the OCLC Batchload Specialist assigned to your active project.

How to sign up: To subscribe to this and other OCLC discussion lists, click here and complete and submit the form.  Alternatively, you may send an e-mail to listserv@oclc.org.  Leave the subject line blank and in the body of the message type, SUB BATCHLOAD-L [Your Name].  You will receive an e-mail to confirm that you have joined the list and accompanying instructions for using the list.  We encourage you to share the information with your colleagues that may be interested.

Please visit Batchload on the Web to learn more about Batchload services at OCLC.

Please note that the Enhance Participants List is available at http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/quality/enhance/default.htm and most other Enhance documentation can be accessed from the “Enhance-Level Cataloging” section of the OCLC Web site’s “WorldCat and Cataloging Documentation” page at http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcat/.

Please take advantage of the Enhance discussion list and the information sharing opportunities it affords.  If you or your colleagues have not subscribed but wish to, please to the sign-up page on the University of Washington Web site at https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/enhance.

As always, thank you for all the work you do to uphold the quality standards of OCLC’s WorldCat.

New partnership will help libraries make ebook holdings more visible, accessible through WorldCat

DUBLIN, Ohio, June 24, 2010—OCLC and ebrary, a leading provider of digital content products and technologies, are working together to add records for the ebrary ebook catalog to WorldCat, the world’s most comprehensive database for discovery of library resources.

ebrary’s growing selection of over 170,000 authoritative ebooks in all subject areas will be represented in WorldCat with a link to the ebrary platform.  Libraries that subscribe to ebrary ebooks can have ebrary set holdings automatically for the relevant records.  WorldCat Local authenticated users will then be able to link directly to ebrary ebooks from the corresponding WorldCat records.  Web users searching through WorldCat.org will be able link to the ebrary platform to preview the ebooks and find out how their library might be able to access them.  Libraries may choose to share records for their own theses and dissertations, special collections, and other electronic documents hosted by ebrary.

“We, at ebrary, are very pleased to have entered into this partnership with OCLC,” said Christopher Warnock, CEO of ebrary.  “This is something that our customers have been requesting from us for a long time, and we are very happy to have done this.  Partnerships like this are important to making information more accessible, providing better integration within library systems and improving the value of our services and our publishers’ content for libraries, which is something we will always try our best to do.”

“Libraries will welcome the addition of records representing the ebrary ebook collection to WorldCat,” said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development.  “OCLC continues to partner with organizations to improve the ability of WorldCat to point to all types of collections, such as Google Books, the HathiTrust Digital Library, database providers and ebook providers such as ebrary.  We will continue to work with partners to maximize the visibility and value of libraries’ full collections.”

To find out more about ebook and econtent partnerships with OCLC, contact Bill Carney, OCLC Content Manager, at carneyb@oclc.org.

About ebrary
ebrary helps libraries, corporations, publishers, and consumers get the most out of their digital content.  The company offers a growing selection of more than 170,000 digital books, handbooks, reports, maps, journals and other valuable content from over 425 of the world’s leading publishers under flexible subscription, purchase, and usage-based models.  Additionally, ebrary offers content services—DASH! (do-it-yourself), Software as a Service (SaaS) and licensed—for customers to cost-effectively distribute their own PDF content online.  All ebrary products and services can be integrated and delivered via a single easy-to-use interface that includes powerful tools for finding, discovering, and managing information.  With ebrary InfoTools™, every word in the ebrary system is a network to other online resources of the customer’s choice, extending content value while increasing end-user knowledge and efficiencies.  Founded in 1999, ebrary is privately held and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, USA.  More information about ebrary is at www.ebrary.com.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation, library management and Web services to 71,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories.  OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world’s richest online resource for finding library materials.  Search WorldCat.org on the Web at www.worldcat.org.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

OCLC, WorldCat and WorldCat.org are trademarks and/or service marks of OCLC Online Computer Library Center. Inc.

Third-party product, service and business names are trademarks and/or service marks of their respective owners.

Version 2.20 is a 32-bit and 64-bit compatible version of Connexion client which will work with 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.  The only change in this version is the addition of 64-bit compatibility; only users who want to run Connexion client under 64-bit versions of Windows need to upgrade to this version. OCLC will continue to support Connexion client 2.10 for all other users.

Connexion client is the Windows-based interface to Connexion.  This announcement does not impact the Connexion browser, which is the Web-based interface to Connexion.

Information about Connexion client and a link to download the software is here:
http://www.oclc.org/connexion/interface/client/enhancements/recent.htm

View the upgrade instructions here:
http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/connexion/client/gettingstarted/gettingstarted/#update_client.fm

Susan Bach Books, located in Rio de Janeiro, was founded in 1949 by a linguist and book dealer from Europe and is the oldest existing book dealing firm in the country.  As a distributor of all Brazilian university and academic presses, they have a large stock of out-of print books and periodicals and a fine collection of Rare Books.  Their representatives are in all regions of Brazil and have arrangements with a few book dealers from Spanish-speaking neighboring countries which enable them to supply some selected titles from Latin America.  They provide full library services of Brazilian materials in all subjects and their services include: approval plans, standing orders, serial subscriptions, new-titles bulletins, monographic ordering, full cataloging and minimal level records, and shelf- ready processing.

For more information about Susan Bach Books, please see: http://www.sbachbooks.com.br/.

For more information about WorldCat Selection, please see: http://www.oclc.org/selection.

For a complete list of WorldCat Selection partners, both current and forthcoming, please see: http://www.oclc.org/selection/partners.

Community feedback shaped new policy

DUBLIN, Ohio, June 21, 2010—A new WorldCat record use policy, developed by a Record Use Policy Council and informed by community input, has been approved by the OCLC Board of Trustees.  WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative will be effective August 1, 2010.

The new policy outlines the rights and responsibilities associated with stewardship of the WorldCat bibliographic and holdings database by and for the OCLC cooperative, including the use and exchange of OCLC member-contributed data comprising WorldCat.

The policy was drafted by the Record Use Policy Council, a group of 12 library leaders charged by the OCLC Board of Trustees to craft a replacement for the Guidelines for Use and Transfer of OCLC Derived Records, which was developed in 1987.

In April 2010, the Record Use Policy Council submitted to the library community and to the OCLC Board a draft policy that began a two-month period of community review and discussion.  More than 275 comments were gathered via e-mail, phone, meetings and letters, in an online forum, and by monitoring blogs, listservs, and Twitter.  At the end of May, community input was incorporated and a policy statement was submitted to the OCLC Board, which approved the revised document during its June meeting.

“We decided to emphasize a code of good practice for members of the cooperative, based on shared values, trust and reciprocity,” said Jennifer Younger, Co-Chair of the Record Use Policy Council, President-Elect, OCLC Global Council and Chair, Board of Directors, Catholic Research Resources Alliance.  “The focus of the new policy is on member rights and responsibilities—instead of data ownership issues, detailed provisions or restrictions—with the general aim of fostering innovation in our ever-changing information landscape.”

The policy is based on the premise that OCLC members value WorldCat as a comprehensive, timely, and accurate reflection of the consolidated holdings of those members.  The policy’s intent is to encourage the widespread use of WorldCat bibliographic data while also supporting the ongoing and long-term sustainability and utility of WorldCat and of WorldCat-based services such as resource sharing, cataloging, and discovery.

“The new policy supports library choice in a hybrid environment of metadata types and content standards,” said Barbara Gubbin, Co-Chair of the Record Use Policy Council and Director, Jacksonville (Florida) Public Library.  “It recognizes as essential the need for OCLC members to share and reuse their data with many partners, across many systems, sites, and applications.”

The Record Use Policy Council was named in September 2009 to develop this new policy by providing a broad and inclusive set of perspectives and experiences, determining the current and future information needs of the library community, and gathering and including feedback from the library community.

“We heard from many OCLC members, and we listened,” said Larry Alford, Chair of the OCLC Board of Trustees and Dean of University Libraries, Temple University.  “This process was an exercise in governance of the collaborative by its members.  The result is a new record use policy that will serve the cooperative well as we continue to nurture and grow WorldCat while providing libraries with the flexibility they need to use WorldCat derived data in innovative ways in a rapidly changing information environment.”

Mr. Alford acknowledged the work of the Record Use Policy Council.  “These global library leaders spent many months grappling with complex issues and listening to library community input,” said Mr. Alford.  “OCLC members worldwide owe this dedicated group a deep debt of gratitude for their time and hard work.”

The new policy will become effective August 1, 2010, replacing the Guidelines for Use and Transfer of OCLC Derived Records.  Because the data sharing environment is constantly and rapidly evolving, this new policy will be regularly reviewed to ensure its continued timeliness.

To view the new policy, including a Frequently Asked Questions document and a comparison between the draft submitted for community review and the final document, visit www.oclc.org/worldcat/recorduse/.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation, library management and Web services to 71,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories.  OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world’s richest online resource for finding library materials.  Search WorldCat.org on the Web at www.worldcat.org.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

OCLC, WorldCat and WorldCat.org are trademarks and/or servicemarks of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

Third-party product, service and business names are trademarks and/or servicemarks of their respective owners.

Iberbook Sánchez-Cuesta is one of the leading Spanish suppliers of bibliographical material for institutional and scientific libraries.  They have been providing Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American books and non-print materials to specific libraries all over the world for many decades.  The most important reasons behind the successful cooperation that they have built on with their clients are their long experience (since 1924) in the market of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American books and their highly qualified staff, whose members are trained to meet the specific needs of the various libraries.  Their prime service is the approval plan.  Over the course of many years and in cooperation with highly specialized libraries, Iberbook Sánchez-Cuesta have developed the necessary tools in order to offer the best selection of bibliographic material for any defined profile.  Iberbook Sánchez-Cuesta has earned itself an outstanding reputation in the Anglo-Saxon and European world for the quality of its blanket orders.

For more information about Iberbook Sánchez-Cuesta, please see:  http://www.ibersaculib.com/.

For more information about WorldCat Selection, please see: http://www.oclc.org/selection.

For a complete list of WorldCat Selection partners, both current and forthcoming, please see: http://www.oclc.org/selection/partners.