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OCLC WorldCat Collection Sets (WCS)

Retrieving Files from OCLC (GET)

When are files posted?
After completion of processing. You will be notified via e-mail when your files are ready for pick up.

Downloading files
Files are available for downloading for 90 days. After 90 days, contact your OCLC regional service provider for out-of-warranty products. You may retrieve a file anytime, with the exception of the following maintenance times:

  • Sunday, 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time

Retrieving files via Internet FTP
A sample FTP session follows:

Step Example

1. Enter FTP address.

edx.oclc.org

2. Type logon.

t[xxx]1
(xxx = OCLC institution symbol)

3. Type password.

See passwords.

4. Change directory.

cd 'EDX.WCS.[xxx].FTP'
(Enter single quote before and after directory name.
xxx = OCLC institution symbol)

5. Identify the file you are retrieving.
(If using UNIX commands, type ls to list the files.)

(See the example FTP file names following)

6. Once the file has been identified, verify that your transfer type is set to binary.

Note: STATS files, COUNT files and partitioned datasets must be retrieved using ASCII.

bin

7. Complete the action to "get" the file from OCLC.

get [file name]

8. The system responds with a message that the file was transferred successfully.

(If the system does not respond with this message, see troubleshooting.)

 

9. End your FTP session.

 

Example FTP file names

When OCLC WorldCat Collection Sets posts the files to an EDX account, it uses the following file names (xxx = OCLC institution symbol; the date always follows the file name in the YYMMDD format):

  • Record Files:
    • EDX.WCS.[xxx].FTP.D040901.b[yyyy]
  • Stats Files:
    • EDX.WCS.[xxx].FTP.count.D040901.b[yyyy]
FTP software considerations DOS/UNIX:
  1. Change the directory to the sub-directory where the file is to be downloaded.
  2. Set passive to off.
  3. Set transfer mode to binary.
  4. Send one file at a time.
WS_FTP:
  1. Set passive to off.
  2. Change the host type to IBM-MVS.
  3. Set transfer mode to binary.
  4. Unable to see files that have migrated. After three days, files are moved, or migrated, from the EDX server to a secondary storage area.
Retrieving files via OCLC Product Services Web To retrieve files using OCLC Product Services Web.

Step Action

  1.

Click Records and Reports.

  2.

Click OCLC WorldCat Collection Sets.

  3.

Enter your OCLC authorization and password.

  4.

Click OK.

  5.

Select the desired file to download.

  6.

Perform a Save As, as per your browser's Help instructions.