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.

Attend this webinar to learn how staff from leading research institutions are putting aggregated library data to work in their daily operations.  Join Program Officer Constance Malpas and a panel of young library leaders for a lively discussion about the role of data analysis in library collection management.  Staff from three RLG Partner institutions will share insights from research that is reshaping preservation, access and management practices at Columbia University, the University of Michigan and the University of California.  Featured projects include a longitudinal analysis of circulation trends at Columbia that is informing off-site storage transfers; a study of post-digitization use of print collections at the University of Michigan; and a project to streamline preservation workflows at UCLA by automating selected aspects of risk assessment.  Zack Lane (Columbia), Helen Look (Michigan) and Jake Nadal (UCLA) will describe how these projects were designed and executed, and share their experiences in developing new institutional capacity for data-driven analyses.  This 90 minute session will include ample time for an open discussion about the opportunities and challenges of implementing data-driven management strategies and retooling the library workforce.

Register here* to attend this webinar via WebEx on 9 September 2010 from 2-3:30 p.m. EDT (UTC 18:00-19:30).

Webinar participation is free but advanced registration is required.  This webinar will be recorded and made available on our Web site and in iTunes.

*After you register, you will receive an e-mail message that contains instructions for logging on to WebEx, where you will view the meeting slides online through your Web browser (please note that WebEx recommends using Internet Explorer or Firefox, as Chrome and Safari are not supported).  When you log in to the webinar, the presentation audio will be available through your computer headset or phone.

If you have questions or need assistance, please call WebEx technical support directly by phone at US/Canada Toll-Free: 1 (866) 229-3239 or International Toll: +1 (408) 435-7088.

Announcing the next WorldCat Mashathon.  Sponsored by the OCLC Developer Network, Brandeis University and Microsoft, the next WorldCat Mashathon will be held Thursday and Friday, September 23-24 at the Microsoft New England Research and Development (NERD) Center in Cambridge, MA.

WorldCat Mashathons give participants the opportunity for two full days of brainstorming and coding mash-ups with local systems and other Web services to take advantage of all that WorldCat, the world’s largest bibliographic database, has to offer.  Previous Mashathon events in New York, Amsterdam, Seattle, Melbourne and Liverpool, have produced many cool applications (http://www.oclc.org/developer/applications).

Direct any interested librarians or developers you know to the Boston Mashathon registration page: http://www.oclc.org/developer/events/boston-mashathon

WebJunction is hosting a free two-hour symposium that will feature four presentations on current trends and practical approaches to library digitization and preservation projects.  Guest panelists will address:

• Designing a digital preservation system using a framework that includes all stakeholders, from library administrators to archivists to IT workers to vendors.
• The difference between access and preservation tools, and why we need to consider both.
• Harvesting social networking Web sites for preservation.
• The organizational “long view” of preservation resources, technology, costs and policies.

Panelists include:

• Sarai Lastra, Vice Chancellor of Information Resources/Director of Virtual Library at Universidad del Turabo, Puerto Rico.
• Sarah McHugh, Statewide Projects Librarian, Montana State Library, including Montana Memory Project.
• Amy Rudersdorf, Director of the Digital Information Management Program, State Library of North Carolina and lecturer at San Jose State University, School of Library & Information Science.
• Taylor Surface, Senior Product Manager, Digital Collection Services, OCLC.

Visit the event site to register and for more details >>

Does your library subscribe to the OCLC FirstSearch Base Package?  Or does your library have access to the OCLC FirstSearch Base Package through your state library’s subscription, or a group subscription?

If so, you are eligible to receive CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software at no additional cost to your library.

With CONTENTdm “quick start,” your library will receive:

(1) CONTENTdm software hosted by OCLC
(2) Three downloadable Project Clients for building your digital collections
(3) 10GB of storage for up to 3,000 digital items

This entry-level, hosted version of CONTENTdm will support your efforts to increase access to your library’s digital content via the Web.

NEXT STEPS

To learn more, please join us for a “live” Webinar on Tuesday, September 28 from 3:00-5:00 PM Eastern | 12:00-2:00 PM Pacific.

Or visit CONTENTdm “quick start”

If you have questions about your library’s eligibility, please email us at contentdm@oclc.org.

What is CONTENTdm?
OCLC’s CONTENTdm is used by nearly 2,000 libraries, museums, archives and other cultural heritage organizations worldwide.  It can make everything in your digital collections available to everyone, everywhere.  No matter the format—local history archives, newspapers, books, maps, slide libraries or audio/video—CONTENTdm can handle the storage, management and delivery of your collections to users across the Web.

Globally and nationally, book publishing represents a central kind of cultural heritage.  In this webinar, OCLC Research Post-Doctoral Researcher Timothy J. Dickey will provide an overview of an OCLC Research data mining project that looked at books as expressions of global cultural diversity to provide a global overview of the publishing arts.  In this project, researchers considered the overall annual publishing for every country of the world, the libraries that collect and even import a country’s works, the “foreign” monographs their libraries import, and the proportion of publications in various official and native languages.  These efforts produced a rich data portrait of the global literary arts (as reflected library records in the WorldCat database), with emphasis on cultural literary heritage by country and region and includes a wealth of case studies in single countries’ practices in both literary publishing and the preservation of their literary heritage.

Register here* to attend this webinar via WebEx on 16 September 2010 from 12-1 p.m. EDT (UTC 16:00-17:00).

Webinar participation is free but advanced registration is required.  This webinar will be recorded and made available on our Web site and in iTunes.

*After you register, you will receive an e-mail message that contains instructions for logging on to WebEx, where you will view the meeting slides online through your Web browser (please note that WebEx recommends using Internet Explorer or Firefox, as Chrome and Safari are not supported).  When you log in to the webinar, the presentation audio will be available through your computer headset or phone.

If you have questions or need assistance, please call WebEx technical support directly by phone at US/Canada Toll-Free: 1 (866) 229-3239 or International Toll: +1 (408) 435-7088.

Dublin, Ohio – August 23, 2010 – Geek the Library, a community-based public awareness campaign, is now available for adoption by any U.S. public library.  The campaign is designed to highlight the vital role of public libraries in today’s challenging economic environment and to increase local library support.  Geek the Library has proven ability to improve public perceptions about local library funding needs in test communities.  Details about how libraries can use the campaign to increase local support are available at www.get.geekthelibrary.org.

“We conducted a pilot campaign in two library communities last year and we know that an awareness campaign like Geek the Library can positively impact public perceptions of libraries and library funding,” said Cathy De Rosa, global vice president of marketing for OCLC.  “People saw Geek the Library out in the community, connected on a personal level and took actions to engage with others to increase support and funding for libraries.  The campaign has the potential to increase long-term funding for libraries, and we are pleased to be able to make the campaign available to any public library in the United States.”

With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, OCLC helped libraries in central Iowa and southern Georgia pilot the campaign from June through December 2009.  Nearly 100 libraries and library systems participated.  Four additional library communities tested the campaign on a more abbreviated calendar and budget: Milwaukee Public Library in Wisconsin; Piedmont Regional Library System in Georgia (covering Banks, Barrow and Jackson Counties); Shelbyville-Shelby County Public Library in Shelbyville, Indiana; and Zion-Benton Public Library in Zion, Illinois.

“It has made a lot more people aware that the library needs more funding,” noted Patty R. Wilson, branch manager for Glennville Public Library in Glennville, Georgia.

Pilot libraries used the campaign to position the library as a critical asset—for individuals (e.g., to find jobs, re-educate themselves and enhance literacy) and for the community (e.g., access to technology, continued education and economic benefits).  The campaign served as a springboard for initiating and expanding relationships with influential members of the community and the media, and for starting important local library funding discussions.

“Libraries adopting the program will benefit from the knowledge gained during the pilots.  Combined results from field surveys, one-on-one library meetings, and qualitative and quantitative research indicate awareness and positive shifts in community perceptions,” said De Rosa.  “Library leaders can visit www.get.geekthelibrary.org to learn more about the program and how it can benefit their communities.  The site explains what the program is, how it works, and the time and resource commitments to implement the programs.”

Interested libraries can register on www.get.geekthelibrary.org for more information about executing the campaign locally.  Libraries and library systems that meet minimal commitment requirements for implementing Geek the Library will receive full access to all campaign material and initial campaign training from dedicated field managers.  This team will focus on supporting participating libraries through the planning and launch stages, but will provide ongoing guidance, as needed.

“The campaign has been very good for public awareness.  We have lots of support from people who say they love the campaign and that continues to be the case,” said Jan Kaiser, marketing manager for Des Moines Public Library in Des Moines, Iowa.

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 72,000 libraries in 171 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.

OCLC advocacy programs are part of a long-term initiative to champion libraries to increase their visibility and viability within their communities.  Programs include advertising and marketing materials to reinforce the idea of the library as relevant, and market research reports that identify and communicate trends of importance to the library profession.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

About Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.  In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.  In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.  Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.  Learn more at www.gatesfoundation.org.

Geek the Library, Get Your Geek On, OCLC and WorldCat are trademarks/service marks of OCLC.  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.

The organization names below are linked to each organization’s record, if available, in the OCLC WorldCat Registry.  OCLC’s WorldCat Registry allows libraries worldwide to manage and organize their data for vendors and third parties by creating and maintaining a comprehensive institutional profile in a single, Web-accessible location.

South Carolina Digital Library
(http://www.scmemory.org)
South Carolina Digital Library

The South Carolina Digital Library (SCDL) is a collaborative effort that includes South Carolina’s schools, libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions.  SCDL’s mission is to encourage our collaborators to create, maintain, and promote digital collections that represent South Carolina’s historical and cultural resources while following state-level guidelines that are based on national standards and best practices.

AV/AR audio video collection
(http://www.digital.butlercenter.org/cdm-p1532coll1/index_p1532coll1.php?CISOROOT=/p1532coll1)
Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System (http://www.worldcat.org/registry/Institutions/8333)

The AV/AR audio/video collection is a rich source of oral history and other recorded material for Arkansas.  It contains oral history interviews, lectures about Arkansas, and various kinds of film footage have been indexed with subject descriptions that provide a variety of sources relating to a specific topic.

Edgar R. McGuire Historical Medical Instrument Collection
(http://ubdigit.buffalo.edu/collections/lib/lib-hsl/lib-hsl001_MedInstr.php)
University at Buffalo, SUNY (http://www.worldcat.org/registry/Institutions/104409)

The Edgar R. McGuire Historical Medical Instrument Collection was established in 1985 by Mrs. Annette Cravens in memory of her father, chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Buffalo from 1914 until his death in 1931.  This collection contains images of instruments illustrating past medical and dental procedures.

Postcards of Oshkosh
(http://www.oshkoshpubliclibrary.org/postcards.html)
Oshkosh Public Library (http://www.worldcat.org/registry/Institutions/16629)

This collection consists of postcards with views of businesses, churches, parks, city streets, country roads and other structures throughout the city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  According to postcard dealers, these small town views are highly sought after cards.  Dating of the cards for year or era was determined by postmarks and identifying certain features present on the postcard.