The National Diet Library of Japan to add records to WorldCat

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 10 June 2010—OCLC and the National Diet Library (NDL) have signed an agreement to work cooperatively to make more than 5 million records from NDL more visible and accessible to scholars and researchers worldwide through WorldCat.

In the agreement, NDL and OCLC state their intent “to cooperate for the benefit of libraries, library patrons and end users of information services.”

"We at OCLC are honored to work with the National Diet Library to make the official national bibliography of Japan available in the WorldCat database," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "This partnership will add significant value for the global community of Japanese language readers and scholars."

"The National Diet Library values its cooperation with OCLC," said Makoto Nagao, Librarian of the NDL. "Through WorldCat, our records from the Japanese National Bibliography will be of great benefit to global users. We are pleased to share Japanese cultural resources on a worldwide scale."

The National Diet Library has been using WorldCat for current cataloging of Western languages materials since 2007. This new agreement provides for the contribution of the complete contents of the JAPAN/MARC database, the official national bibliography of Japan, to WorldCat on a regular basis.

NDL and OCLC will work together to add the 5 million records to the WorldCat database. Once records are added to WorldCat, they are more visible and accessible to Web users worldwide through WorldCat.org, the destination for search and discovery of library materials on the Web.

Kinokuniya Company Ltd., OCLC's distributor in Japan for 24 years, helped to facilitate this agreement.

WorldCat is the world's most comprehensive database of library materials. Updated in libraries and by library professionals around the world at a rate of nearly one new record every second, WorldCat comprises more than 180 million bibliographic records and holdings contributed by thousands of libraries.

Thirty-five national libraries are adding digital images, national files and bibliographies to WorldCat by both batchloading records and online contribution.

Watch WorldCat grow in real time.

About National Diet Library
Established in 1948, the National Diet Library has achieved many results over some 60 years as an organization assisting the legislative activities of the National Diet and as the sole national library of the country. As the only depository library in Japan, the NDL acquires all materials published in Japan, preserves them as national cultural heritage, and provides various types of bibliographic data. NDL-OPAC, the online catalog system, is available on the Web at http://opac.ndl.go.jp/index_e.html NDL is also developing the digital library in which digital materials are available directly from the NDL website.

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. For more information, visit the OCLC Web site.

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