Tag Archives: OCLC

WorldCat database reaches 2 billion holdings

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“WorldCat is a database of bibliographic information created and continuously updated by some 25,000 OCLC member libraries around the world. WorldCat records describe specific works and contain a listing of institutions that own an item, referred to as “holdings.” Institutions use holdings information to create local catalogs, arrange interlibrary loans and conduct reference work.”

“WorldCat was created in 1971 so that libraries could share cataloging information from a central database, increasing workflow efficiency and the ability to locate and loan materials. It took the OCLC cooperative almost 34 years, from August 26, 1971 to August 11, 2005, to add 1 billion holdings in WorldCat. It has taken just seven years and eight months to add the next billion.” 

“WorldCat spans six millennia of recorded knowledge, from about 4800 B.C. to the present. It encompasses records for books, serials, sound recordings, musical scores, maps, visual materials, mixed materials and computer files.”

From OCLC Member Update [oclc@oclc.org]

“Find more about WorldCat on the OCLC website, and watch WorldCat grow as libraries around the world contribute to the database.”

(Holdings constitute a higher number than titles.  A(nother) holding is counted for each library that owns a title.

WorldCat, world’s largest book catalog, now lists JSTOR articles!

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"JSTOR now indexed in WorldCat.org – 18 Jan 2010

Authenticated scholars and researchers with online access to full-text content in JSTOR can now locate and connect to articles through WorldCat.org. JSTOR is a preservation archive and research platform for the academic community.

Over 4.5 million JSTOR article-level records from more than 1,000 journals, selected monographs, and other scholarly content are now indexed in WorldCat.org, the Web destination for discovery of materials in libraries worldwide. JSTOR records are delivered in WorldCat.org search results. Scholars and researchers using WorldCat.org can now identify content in JSTOR and connect to the full-text using the authorisation provided by their library.

WorldCat.org is a Web destination with search and social networking features that allow information seekers to discover, localise, and personalise content from local collections and those of more than 10,000 WorldCat libraries worldwide. WorldCat.org indexing of JSTOR metadata helps researchers easily identify resources in the collection alongside other materials relevant to their work. An authorization is required for access to full-text materials in JSTOR.

WorldCat claims to be the world’s largest 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. There are now more than 165 million records in WorldCat spanning five millennia of recorded knowledge. Like the knowledge it describes, WorldCat grows steadily. Every second, OCLC and its member libraries add seven records to WorldCat."

Source:  Knowledgespeak Newsletter.

University Libraries in Google Project to Offer Backup Digital Library

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The Chronicle of Higher Education on Monday, October 13, 2008, has announced the formation of a giant library to serve as a back-up for Google Books, designated as the HathiTrust.

"The…HathiTrust, …consists of the members of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium of the 11 universities in the Big Ten Conference and the University of Chicago, and the 10 campuses in the University of California system. The University of Virginia is joining the project, it will be announced today, and officials hope to bring in other colleges as well."

Already HathiTrust  (a shared digital respository ), contains the full text of more than two million books scanned by Google.  However, only about 16 percent of the books in HathiTrust—or about 327,000 volumes—are out of copyright so that their full text can be delivered to all readers.

To read the whole article: http://chronicle.com/free/2008/10/5061n.htm

 

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WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry

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OCLC set to launch new service to discover copyright status of books
– 27 Aug 2008

Global library cooperative Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), US, has announced that it is piloting a new service for libraries that encourage librarians and other interested parties to discover and share information on copyright status of books.

The WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry is a community working together to build a union catalogue of copyright evidence based on WorldCat, which contains over 100 million bibliographic records describing items held in thousands of libraries worldwide. In addition to the WorldCat metadata, the Copyright Evidence Registry uses other data contributed by libraries and other organisations. The new service seeks to encourage a cooperative environment to discover, create and share copyright evidence through a collaboratively created and maintained database, using the WorldCat cooperative model to eliminate duplicate efforts.

The Copyright Evidence Registry six-month pilot was launched July 1 to test the concept and functionality. Users can search the Copyright Evidence Registry to find information about a book, learn what others have said about its copyright status, and share what they know. During a later stage of the pilot, OCLC will add a feature enabling pilot libraries to create and run automated copyright rules conforming to standards they define for determining copyright status. The rules will help libraries analyse the information available in the Copyright Evidence Registry and form their own conclusions about copyright status.

The WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry beta can be accessed at http://www.worldcat.org/copyrightevidence. OCLC has called for feedbacks on the Copyright Evidence Registry from the library community on the WorldCat.org website at http://www.worldcat.org/copyrightevidence/registry/feedback.

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From today’s Knowledgespeak Newsletter.