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Products and Services : Cataloging and Metadata : What’s included in your cataloging subscription

What’s included in your cataloging subscription

An OCLC cataloging subscription provides access to content, services and resources that help you deliver the best possible experience to your users.

  • Access to WorldCat—an incomparable source of cataloging records from the world’s largest catalog; nearly 75 percent are OCLC member-contributed.
  • Your choice of cataloging services for finding and downloading records: Connexion, CatExpress and Z39.50 Cataloging for cost-effective online cataloging and batchload services. All easy, fast ways for members to send holdings and keep them in synch with WorldCat.
  • Automated adding and updating of holdings information for electronic serials through the eSerials Holdings service.
  • Functionality to better manage electronic resource workflows: through the WorldCat knowledge base, data about your library's electronic content combines with automated linking features to enable better, easier access to these materials.
  • Records automatically delivered to support streamlined workflows via WorldCat Cataloging Partners, Bibliographic Record Notification (BibNote), and MARC records for government documents through the GovDoc service.
  • Detailed bibliographic and authorities documentation and help files, member listservs and knowledgeable support via e-mail, Webinars and phone.
  • Support for a vibrant, worldwide expert community not only collaboratively improving bibliographic records, but also creating and maintaining high quality serials and authority data through strong collective support for knowledge organization programs of national and international scope (e.g., CONSER, NACO, VIAF).
  • Stewardship and enrichment of WorldCat through OCLC-provided automated record enrichment; duplicate detection and resolution (DDR); systemwide MARC updates; and RDA (Resource Description and Access) compatibility.
  • The opportunity to collaborate with OCLC members and staff to identify opportunities, explore solutions and communicate the results in print, online and in person. Access to a variety of development resources such as the WorldCat Search API, the WorldCat Registry API, the OpenURL Gateway, Identifier Services xISBN and xISSN and the OCLC Terminologies service.

The scope and flexibility of OCLC cataloging allows more libraries of more types and sizes to participate. This, in turn, leads to better cost sharing and efficiency for you. WorldCat truly is an example of what libraries can do when we work together. The more we cooperate, the better our shared future becomes.

The ability to quickly report our holdings is important for our students, of course. But international students also benefit from quick and accurate ILL. The innovation of OCLC staff also means that users can take advantage of the latest library apps such as the Google Books ‘Find in a Library’ program and the WorldCat mobile phone app.”

—Mary Curran, Head of Cataloguing Services, University of Ottawa

Read more from OCLC users ››

To learn more about an OCLC Cataloging Subscription, contact OCLC ››