A discussion paper, Incorporating RDA practices into WorldCat, laying out potential policies and actions is now available for comment. Please send your comments on these proposed policies and actions, as well as your thoughts on any other possible policies in regard to bibliographic records and RDA, to rdapolicy@oclc.org by April 15, 2012.

In the research that led to the publication of Online Catalogs: What End Users and Librarians Want library staff who use WorldCat ranked the need for increased accuracy in name and subject headings as a highly desired improvement. The report on WorldCat quality issued in September 2011 identified a project to control more headings in WorldCat as a priority during OCLC’s fiscal year 2012. The following describes this new controlling effort which will provide benefit to all users of WorldCat, regardless of which interface they use.

Current controlling functionality in Connexion. The controlling functionality currently available in the Connexion applications enables users to link authority records to headings in master WorldCat bibliographic records. Cataloger-initiated controlling functions facilitate automatic updating of headings in bibliographic records.

• Connexion users initiate matching headings in bibliographic records to established authority records.
• The system normalizes the headings in bibliographic records, matches them with authority records, and inserts the linked heading in the bibliographic record.

New stand-alone controlling software. OCLC is extending the Control All functionality by developing a stand-alone batch service that runs independently. The software evaluates all bibliographic records in WorldCat and controls headings as detailed below.

Records evaluated for processing. The software will evaluate the following bibliographic records in WorldCat for processing according to different time schedules:

• Master bibliographic records newly added to WorldCat contributed either through online applications or through batchload will be evaluated daily.
• Master bibliographic records changed and replaced in WorldCat will be evaluated on a pre-determined schedule.
• Existing master bibliographic records in WorldCat will be evaluated on a to-be-determined schedule and as capacity allows.

OCLC has begun processing records selected from among new and replaced records and will gradually increase the number of records processed each day over the next few weeks. We will announce when we begin processing existing records and will report periodically on progress.

Criteria for record selection. The software will select candidate bibliographic records for processing that contain the following:

• An 040 field with no ‡b present and at least one of the following controllable fields:

• 100, 110, 111, 130
• 600, 610, 611, 630, 650, 651, second indicator 0
• 655, second indicator 7, ‡2 lcgft
• 700, 710, 711, 730
• 800, 810, 811, 830

• An 040 field with ‡b present containing the value eng and at least one of the following controllable fields:

• 100, 110, 111, 130
• 600, 610, 611, 630, 650, 651, second indicator 0
• 655, second indicator 7, ‡2 lcgft
• 700, 710, 711, 730
• 800, 810, 811, 830

• An 040 field with ‡b present but containing a value not equal to eng and at least one of the following controllable fields:

• 600, 610, 611, 630, 650, 651, second indicator 0
• 655, second indicator 7, ‡2 lcgft

• A partially or fully controlled heading.

How the software works.
The software will not:

• Attempt to control unqualified personal names (personal name only that does not include ‡b, ‡c, ‡d, and/or ‡q).
• Control a heading to an undifferentiated authority record.
• Cause automated tag flips of any type.

The software will:

• Automatically expand dates for candidate personal name headings.
• Partially control series fields and automatically append ‡v.
• Maintain the links between non-Latin script headings and their Latin-script equivalents.

The software will also make the following adjustments as needed:

• Apply any appropriate punctuation changes.
• Attempt to control partially controlled headings.
• Uncontrol descriptive heading fields (1XX, 7XX and 8XX) if the value in field 040 in the bibliographic record is other than eng.
• Delete a geographic subdivision from a subject heading if the heading can be completely controlled and no element of the heading can be subdivided geographically.

The symbol “OCLCO” will be appended in ‡d of the 040 field in bibliographic records that are modified by the software.
If a bibliographic record is locked, the software will skip it and reevaluate it when the lock has been removed.
The new software supplements individual cataloging activity. As with the “Control All” headings function in Connexion, some circumstances prevent the software from controlling all headings in WorldCat records. The software cannot do the manual “Single Control” headings functions that catalogers can do in Connexion. The software cannot control non-qualified personal names, headings that have no exact match or that match only partially, headings that are mis-tagged, headings that contain typographical errors or other errors that require correction.

OCLC encourages catalogers working in WorldCat to continue using the control headings functions in Connexion when adding or upgrading records as you continue to share your cataloging expertise with the cooperative.

On August 26, 1971, the OCLC Online Union Catalog and Shared Cataloging system (now known as WorldCat) began operation. That first day, from a single terminal, catalogers at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, cataloged 133 books online. Today, WorldCat comprises more than 240 million records representing more than 1.7 billion items in OCLC member libraries worldwide.

"We congratulate the thousands of librarians and catalogers around the world who have helped to build WorldCat over the past 40 years keystroke by keystroke, record by record," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "We who work at OCLC are proud to have been a part of this remarkable story, and I want to thank our member institutions and employees for the years of dedicated effort that helped build this unique resource. Fred Kilgour’s vision—improving access to information through library cooperation—is every bit as vital today as it was in 1971. This anniversary is an important milestone in a shared journey that, I believe, will continue for many decades to come."

WorldCat is a database of bibliographic information built continuously by OCLC libraries around the world. 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. Libraries contribute records for items not found in WorldCat using OCLC shared cataloging systems.

"In retrospect, I have to say that in those early days, I don’t think we really understood the enormity of the system that we were embarking upon, much less did we consider what the future possibilities might be," said Lynne Lysiak, who had just started her career at Ohio University Libraries when WorldCat first went online, and is now retired. "As OCLC forges ahead now with WorldCat Local and cloud-computing developments, they are embarking on a new era and suite of services for libraries and their users. It’s an exciting time."

"OCLC cataloging and resource sharing services and our library management systems continue to help libraries improve their productivity, save money and improve access to their collections," said Mr. Jordan. "Against a backdrop of continuous technological change, WorldCat and the OCLC cooperative have continued to grow."

Since 1971, 240 million records have been added to WorldCat, spanning more than 5,000 years of recorded knowledge, from about 3400 B.C. to the present. This unique collection of information encompasses records in a variety of formats—books, e-books, DVDs, digital resources, serials, sound recordings, musical scores, maps, visual materials, mixed materials and computer files. Like the knowledge it describes, WorldCat grows steadily. Every second, library members add seven records to WorldCat.

Once records have been added to WorldCat, they are discoverable on the Web through popular search and partner sites, and through WorldCat.org.

Records entered into WorldCat since 1971 have been continuously migrated, reformatted and updated to conform to newly issued cataloging standards. They have been touched and enhanced hundreds of times by librarians around the world and by OCLC staff and automated systems.

The first OCLC cathode ray tube terminal was the Irascope Model LTE, which was manufactured by Spiras Systems. OCLC deployed 68 LTES, one of which is now on display in a new OCLC Museum dedicated today in Dublin, Ohio. The LTE was connected to OCLC via a dedicated, leased telephone line from AT&T; message traffic moved at the rate of 2400 baud (2,400 symbols per second).

People can now use their mobile phones to access WorldCat via WorldCat Local, where 4G wireless downloads are 2,500 times faster than the original OCLC network. Wired networks are now 416,000 times faster.

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

The new functionality includes enhancements to the 856 field and the ability to have fields or portions or fields deleted from records.

With the new editing options for the 856 field, you can choose to:

• Retain only an 856 field with vendor-supplied data or with a preferred domain name,
• Add a prefix, and indicate preferred domain name,
• Add linked text, public notes, and materials specified notes
  to the 856 field.

The new delete field functionality allows you to have complete fields, portions of fields, or fields with specific indicators deleted from records.

For more information, please contact Julie Whitley (800.848.5878, ext. 6159) or Sandi Jones (800.848.5878, ext. 6082).

WebDewey 2.0 features:

• An easy-to-navigate, simple user interface that is suitable for the novice as well as the power user
• BISAC-to-DDC mappings
• An easy-to-personalize screen display, often done with a single click
• Continuous updating

DDC 23 is the default database and you still have access to DDC 22 from the dropdown menu. You can easily see which database you are in, DDC 22 has green buttons and DDC 23 has orange buttons

DDC 23 also features:

• New provisions in 004-006 Computer science and elsewhere to reflect changes in technology
• Updates to provisions for the Orthodox Church and Islam in 200 Religion
• Improved provisions in 340 Law for legal systems based on civil law
• Significant updates to 370 Education resulting in an improved international framework for levels of education, kinds of schools, policy issues and specific subjects in primary education
• Updated provisions for food and clothing
• Updates to 740 Graphic arts and decorative arts
• A new location and expanded development for cinematography and videography at 777
• Significant expansions throughout 796 Athletic and outdoor sports and games
• Significant expansions in Table 2, with parallel provisions in 930-990, for the ancient world, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, Indonesia, Vietnam and Canada
• Updated historical periods throughout 930-990

Dedicated to Dewey users worldwide, DDC 23 features:

• Many new topics and significant updates to selected fields
• Numbers informed by interaction with the worldwide community of Dewey users
• A complete overhaul to the representation of groups of people
• Revisions to several standard subdivisions
• Elimination of dual headings and unbalanced spans
• A minimal price increase

Current WebDewey subscribers can access the new system with their existing authorizations and passwords at WebDewey. The existing WebDewey interface will be available until mid 2011, at which time users will be redirected to the new service. Abridged 15 and Abridged WebDewey 2.0 will be available later in 2011.

Log on to WebDewey 2.0

Embrapa's collection, which focuses on topics such as tropical agriculture, food safety, family agriculture, natural resources, advanced technology and agribusiness, comprises approximately 315,000 titles in Portuguese; 125,000 in English; and 22,000 titles in Spanish. Nearly 18,000 records will link to full-text documents, most of which come from Embrapa's digital repository, the Informática Agropecuária (Ainfo). There are now more than 2 million Portuguese records in WorldCat.

"Because Brazil is a global player on tropical agriculture research, it is very important to share this information with other countries," said Dr. Pedro Arraes, Director-President of Embrapa.

"Embrapa's mission of sharing knowledge is closely aligned with OCLC's mission to further access to the world's information," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "Embrapa's important collections in agricultural information and science will now be shared globally."

"We are honored to have Embrapa's records added to WorldCat," said Daniel Boivin, Executive Director, OCLC Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. "Scholars and researchers around the world will have increased access to these valuable resources, either through linking to full text or through enhanced resource sharing capabilities."

This is OCLC's first collaboration with Embrapa and comes as part of an ongoing effort to include more resources from Brazil in WorldCat. Prior to initiating this project with Embrapa in 2007, OCLC added more than 34,000 records to WorldCat from IBICT’s Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD) Metadata Base. OCLC has also worked in a similar capacity in recent years with Bireme, which added more than 40,000 records from SciELO Brasil, and over 300,000 records from the Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences Database (LILACS).

About Embrapa
Founded in 1973, The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation’s mission is to provide feasible solutions for the sustainable development of Brazil’s agribusiness, by sharing knowledge and generating new technologies. Embrapa is headquartered in Brasilia-DF, Brazil and has 42 Research Centers distributed in different states of Brazil and offices in the U.S., France, The Netherlands, Great Britain, South Korea and Ghana.
Embrapa, through its association with the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, has developed and recommended more than 9,000 technologies for Brazilian agriculture that aid in reducing production costs. Embrapa has also assisted Brazil in increasing its food supplies, while conserving natural resources, the environment, and reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign technologies, products and materials.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 170 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat on the Web at www.worldcat.org. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

In October 2010, OCLC’s U.S.-based Member Services team kicked off a new event series, Good Practices for Great Outcomes: Cataloging Efficiencies that Make a Difference. These in-person meetings are designed to highlight practical approaches and ideas that increase efficiency. Each features several member librarians, who discuss workflow changes and tools like WorldCat Cataloging Partners. These member librarians also share how their approach to getting work done has changed. To date, numerous member panelists and keynote speakers have provided a significant array of ideas, tips and advice.

We have just launched a new online portal for Good Practices for Great Outcomes that showcases video and slide presentations from previous events and provides announcements about future events. In addition to these resources, we also highlight our new blog and live Twitter feed, featuring ideas and recommendations contributed by members of the cooperative.

These face-to-face meetings generate many valuable ideas and discussions, and we are excited to expand access to these resources by way of our new virtual community. We invite you to view videos from past events, such as:

• “Putting the Puzzle Together: Technical Services Workflow Redesign,” by Helen Heinrich, Cataloging Coordinator, California State University, Northridge
• “Style 23, Rule 6, & Other Notes on Change Management,” by Karen Schneider, Director of the Cushing Library, Holy Names University

We also invite you to follow us on Twitter at @OCLCMemServ and join in the #goodgreatcat conversation. We hope that you take full advantage of all of these community resources—and don't forget to pass them on to your colleagues.

These meetings have taken place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the University of Washington/Seattle along with Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon (via simulcast), D.C. Public Library and Florida Southern College. The Member Services team has also presented these events at several venues in California, including the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, and during the ALA Midwinter Conference in San Diego. The meetings are free for OCLC members to attend, thanks to the generosity of our library co-hosts.

We hope to meet you online—or in-person—at one of our upcoming events in the near future!

—Chris Martire
Director, OCLC Member Services

BCBTC is a private book supplier that has more than 120 library clients all over the world.

They specialize in providing products and services to academic institutions and public libraries. BCBTC has a 20 year track record with a highly respected reputation for flexibility and prompt delivery with a high rate of client request fulfillment. Refer to different types of customers, they edit academic or popular book catalogues for Chinese publications and supply customized approval plans. Please see the BCBTC website for more information.

The MARC records contributed by BCBTC are considered to be English language cataloging, and may be edited and upgraded by English language cataloging institutions. Some of the records do have 520 (summary) fields which are only provided in Chinese characters. When editing the records, please retain those 520 fields even if you are not providing an English language equivalent.

MARC records are matched to existing titles in WorldCat or added to WorldCat if there is no matching record. Sample records:

Originals: #698913204, #706017799, #694392343

Matches: #644466305, #676725772

In each case a 938 field is added with the vendor code BCBT. This is searchable in Connexion using the vendor index (search vn:bcbt).

More information about OCLC's Vendor Record Contribution Program and a list of all participating vendors ››

Connexion client version 2.30 includes enhancements to the existing functionality. Version 2.30 is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows and supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, but does not support Windows 2000. Version 2.30 uses .NET Framework 4 Extended which is supplied with the Connexion client 2.30 software. You will be required to upgrade to version 2.30 by November 1, 2011. An upgrade warning message will begin appearing when you start version 2.10 or 2.20 beginning in early September 2011.

Connexion client is the Windows-based interface to Connexion. This announcement does not impact the Connexion browser, which is the Web-based interface to Connexion.

View information about Connexion client or download the software

View the upgrade instructions

Anita Taylor Doering, Archivist, and Jeanne Klug-Hefte, Cataloger, La Crosse Public Library, share their story.

La Crosse Public Library Director, Kelly Krieg-Sigman, with
Wisconsin Public Radio Southwest Manager, John Gaddo,
at the launch of StoryCorps in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

This past summer, the La Crosse Public Library in La Crosse, Wisconsin, cosponsored a traveling StoryCorps trailer outside of the library. StoryCorps has a small fleet of mobile trailers. Each fleet team schedules its own route and destinations along the way to record, share, and preserve people's stories throughout the United States. La Crosse Public Library and the local NPR station, WLSU (at University of Wisconsin–La Crosse) jumped on the opportunity to be one of those lucky StoryCorps destinations.

After the StoryCorps trailer was parked in front of the library building, the archivist, Anita Taylor Doering discovered that the library was eligible to receive the recordings of the interviews conducted in La Crosse by responding to a survey from StoryCorps. It was at that moment when she committed the library to not only entering these records of these interviews into the library’s local catalog, but also into WorldCat to make the recordings more globally available.

When the library received the 116 interviews recorded on an external hard drive, along with the notes from the StoryCorps facilitators and the permission documentation that accompanied each interview, the library staff went to work on the cataloging. While it was indisputably important to preserve these personal, historical accounts of local residents, the project wasn’t exempt from careful allocation of funding and identifying additional resources needed. A team from technical services, well-versed in dealing with “special collections,” headed up the physical processing as well as cataloging.

Local (and not-so-local) residents lined up to schedule their 40-minute recording sessions. More than 240 people participated in the interviews in La Crosse between July 15 and August 7, 2010. While most of the participants were from the local community, many came from Minnesota and one participant came from as far away as Tennessee.

The lead cataloger for this project, Jeanne Klug-Hefte, whose experience includes original cataloging of special collections materials, took on the challenge. She searched OCLC for other similar cataloging records that she would be able to emulate. After examining StoryCorps’ own serial record, plus other examples of oral history bibliographic records, Anita opted to have Jeanne create individual cataloging records for each interview, as opposed to a serial record. She cataloged three of the interviews and identified the repetitive data that would be needed for all of the 116 interviews. From this, she created a template. Along with each of the recordings, StoryCorps provided a PDF of the facilitator’s notes, which captured several keywords that were incorporated into the records.

Jim and Jan Gallagher were the first StoryCorps
interviewees in La Crosse. Photo by David J. Marcou.

As luck would have it, the three interviews that formed the basis of the template were probably the easiest to catalog of the entire lot. In many cases, the cataloging team felt that the subdivision “anecdotes” were too lighthearted or flippant—it didn’t capture the somber themes that were central to some of the interviews. Even the creation of titles proved to be tricky. For some of the recordings, the roles of interviewer and interviewee were clear. Other recordings were more dynamic—more conversational. Some had more than one primary contributor, in addition to the StoryCorps facilitator.

The interview participants varied widely, from a Holocaust survivor from Germany who eventually was adopted by a family in Iowa, to a couple who wanted to commemorate their 40^th wedding anniversary and recount their lives together. Stories from war veterans, physical abuse survivors and stories about racism surfaced—and Jeanne had to consider which subject headings to apply to each one. There were misspelled names of local residents or local businesses that required staff expertise and knowledge of the community for correction or improvement.

Because of the staff’s previous experience with local archival projects and “personal histories”—including a DVD collection of Veterans History Project interviews and a project headed up by one of the local schools, “The Road She Traveled” (a project that preserves the stories of notable women throughout the region)—this work was very useful to the StoryCorps project. The cataloging staff already had authority control on some of the names and had to continue to monitor name authorities.

But the staff still experienced some additional discoveries throughout this project. Five or six of the interviews were recorded in Hmong. Wisconsin is one of four states that has a significant Hmong population. Many Lao Hmong war refugees resettled there following the Communist takeover of Laos in 1975. Many came from refugee camps in Thailand.

The interviews in Hmong were cataloged to the best of the staff’s ability and they hope to continue to improve these records. But what struck them the most when they listened to these particular interviews were the intensity and range of emotions and the inflection in the voices that conveyed so much more than print or other media could accomplish. Outside of this aural medium, Americans are constantly inundated with graphics and other distractions that detract from a story. As stories are retold, the distance grows and the capacity to empathize can often diminish. These recordings are extremely powerful to listen to, even if you don’t understand a single word.

As part of the contract, La Crosse Public Library doesn’t have the rights to broadcast the interviews in their entirety via their Web site, but the staff created CDs to circulate locally to the community and make them available more broadly through interlibrary loan. Listening stations at each of the three branches, where residents can listen to the entire collection of recordings, is a goal as well as offering short clips of the recordings on the library Web site to promote the availability of the interviews.

La Crosse was one of the first—if not the first—partner library StoryCorps has worked with to create an item-level record for each interview. StoryCorps has been so impressed with the quality of the cataloging that they are considering using the records as a template for bibliographic records of StoryCorps interviews nationally! To view samples of these records on WorldCat or FirstSearch, or the library’s local catalog, simply search “StoryCorps La Crosse” in the keyword search to retrieve all 116 interviews. If the parts specific to StoryCorps were removed, any library could use this template for any oral interview or oral history.

The library recently announced this honor to a statewide listserv and was surprised at the positive reaction from other catalogers who were enthusiastic in their support of cataloging. The cataloging team is leaving a legacy—a data crumb trail that helps the world discover the stories that belong to these extraordinary, yet seemingly ordinary individuals. Kelly Krieg-Sigman (who also happens to be the library director) and husband Michael Sigman, are in the running to be included in NPR’s new book—a compilation of transcripts from several interviews about love in America. The book is scheduled for release in time for Valentine’s Day 2012.

Here are a few links to the records of the interviews in WorldCat.org:

• Michael Sigman and his wife, Kelly Krieg-Sigman talk about how they met, their first date and their marriage:
• Heidi and Philip Dybing talk about growing up in a small town in Minnesota, meeting in grade school and dating from the time they were 14. They married, had children and live on a farm outside of Lanesboro.
• Susan Colliton interviews her friend and co-worker, Dolly Vanderlip Ozburn, about how Dolly came to be part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball league and the advice she received from her father.
• Jan and Jim Gallagher interview each other and talk about what makes their hearts sing and their travel experiences that helped shaped their lives.

StoryCorps’ mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 30,000 interviews from more than 60,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to recordings through public radio and the Web.

Established in 1888, the La Crosse Public Library (LPL) serves the citizens of the entire Coulee Region and is the headquarters library for the Winding Rivers Library System, LPL provides a full range of library services and programs at each of its three library branches.

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