World's largest library database reaches billionth milestone

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA,  12 August 2005 —WorldCat, the world's richest online resource for finding library materials, now contains information about where to find 1 billion books, journals, theses and dissertations, musical scores, computer files, CDs, DVDs and other items in thousands of libraries worldwide.

At 2:21:34 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, Aug. 11, Anne Slane, a cataloger at Worthington (Ohio) Libraries for 23 years, entered the 1 billionth holding in WorldCat for the book, The Monkees: The day-by-day story of the '60s TV pop sensation.  By entering this holding information to the WorldCat database, Worthington Libraries shows that it owns the book so that librarians, researchers, students and other interested readers worldwide know where to find what they're looking for in a library.

"We're just thrilled to have reached this milestone in WorldCat," said Meribah Mansfield, Director of Worthington Libraries, in Worthington, Ohio, USA.  "I started library school in 1971, the same year WorldCat went online, so I feel like we've grown up together.  I remember library school was all abuzz about this great new advance in technology.  Now, whenever I see a new development in library technology, I think in terms of 'son of WorldCat' or building on the idea of sharing resources that WorldCat began."

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., the world's largest library cooperative, developed a shared cataloging service that first went online in 1971.  The idea was for libraries in Ohio to share cataloging information from one central electronic database, now known as WorldCat.  The OCLC shared cataloging model revolutionized the librarian's workflow and helped make it easy for library patrons to find and get the library materials they needed.  What was once a database shared by libraries in Ohio, grew to a national union catalog, and today, is a global library resource used by more than 54,000 libraries in 96 countries.

Through WorldCat, libraries share not only cataloging information, but library materials as well.  If a library does not own a particular item a patron is looking for, that item can be located and borrowed from another library by using the ownership information on the catalog record.

Today, 34 years after going online, WorldCat contains more than 61 million unique catalog records representing 1 billion items in libraries.  The Bible, Mother Goose, Huckleberry Finn, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are among the top 10 titles in WorldCat, and together those 10 titles represent more than 1 million items in libraries worldwide.  On the other end of the spectrum, there are many unique items cataloged in WorldCat, treasures held in only one place in the world such as a Babylonian temple receipt for cattle and sheep used in temple services around 2350 B.C., or a papyrus manuscript of an edict issued by Publius Petronicus dating from 22 B.C.

The WorldCat of today is vastly different from that of 1971.  Today's WorldCat technological platform makes it possible to accommodate virtually all languages, formats and scripts.  It is now possible to load records of entire collections from libraries all over the world.  And what was once a resource used only by libraries and librarians is now available to searchers worldwide using their favorite Web search engines.  Search engines like Google and Yahoo! make these detailed library records universally available. 

Librarians have always recognized the value of cooperation in libraries, and WorldCat is the product of that kind of cooperative effort to serve library patrons.

"Thirty four years ago this month, 54 libraries in Ohio began a cooperative effort to build an online union catalog," said Betsy Wilson, Chair, OCLC Board of Trustees, and Dean of Libraries, University of Washington.  "Today, that cooperative effort extends to more than 54,000 libraries in 96 countries.  On the occasion of the one billionth holding symbol being added to WorldCat, I would like to thank OCLC member libraries, regional service providers, networks and international distributors for their continuing commitment to OCLC's public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing library costs.  Thousands of catalogers and librarians around the world have worked together these past 34 years to create, keystroke by keystroke, record by record, and symbol by symbol, a unique and valuable library resource for knowledge seekers everywhere.  We have much to be proud of and much to celebrate."

"Passing the one billion mark in holding symbols is an impressive example of what long-term focus and collaboration can produce," said Jay Jordan, President and CEO, OCLC.  "As WorldCat continues to grow in depth and breadth, our new technological platform is amplifying the power of its information and holdings and facilitating resource sharing on a global scale.  Groups of libraries can now access customized views of their WorldCat holdings.  The database now supports Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew scripts in addition to Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Latin scripts.  The general public can search WorldCat on the Open Web and be directed to specific library catalogs and holdings.  Very soon libraries will start to enrich WorldCat with reviews, readers' advisories and other full text.  In short, as we pass the one billion holdings mark, WorldCat will continue to become even bigger, better and more accessible. Three cheers for WorldCat and the OCLC cooperative!"

About WorldCat
WorldCat is the world's largest bibliographic database, the merged catalogs of thousands of OCLC member libraries.  Built and maintained collectively by librarians, WorldCat provides the foundation for many OCLC services.  To watch the WorldCat database grow, see:  www.oclc.org/worldcat/grow.htm

See the top 1000 Titles held by OCLC member libraries in WorldCat:  www.oclc.org/research/top1000/complete.htm

About OCLC
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing and preservation services to 54,000 libraries in 96 countries and territories. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

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OCLC y WorldCat son marcas comerciales y/o marcas de servicios de OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.