National Library of Australia to add records to WorldCat

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA,  11 June 2007 —The National Library of Australia has agreed to add some 12 million bibliographic records to WorldCat, the world's largest database of cataloged items held in libraries, making these records visible to Web searchers worldwide.  Australian libraries will use WorldCat to catalog, find and share library materials.

"The National Library of Australia looks forward to working closely with OCLC through this collaborative services agreement which opens up access to WorldCat for Australian libraries.  This agreement marks a major step forward in the sharing of Australian bibliographic data and exposure of the collections of Australian libraries internationally," said Jan Fullerton, Australian National Library Director General.

Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO, noted that the agreement benefits library users not only in Australia, but around the world.  "The rich resources of 800 Australian libraries will be visible to people everywhere on the Internet through WorldCat.org and Open WorldCat.  These organizations will also be participating in the world's largest library cooperative," he said.

Australian libraries that contribute their current cataloging and holdings to the Australian National Bibliographic Database and WorldCat will become governing members of the OCLC cooperative.

WorldCat contains more than 85 million records representing more than 1 billion items held in libraries worldwide.  The Open WorldCat Program makes library records available on the open Web through popular search engines and partner sites, and through WorldCat.org, the site and single search box used to discover items in the world's library collections.  OCLC, the world's largest library cooperative, built and maintains the WorldCat database with member libraries around the world.

The WorldCat database is growing at an extraordinary rate, with millions of records entered into the world's largest bibliographic resource coming from outside the United States.  In the past several years, OCLC has added international files from the National Library of Germany's bibliography, Dutch Union Catalogue, LinkUK, Toronto Public Library, University of Manitoba, University of Göttingen, National Library of Education in Denmark, the National Union Catalog of Poland, the National Library of New Zealand, and more.  OCLC expects to process more than 38 million records from outside the United States in 2007.

About the National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia is the country's largest reference library.  Its role is to ensure that documentary resources of national significance relating to Australia and the Australian people, as well as significant non-Australian library materials, are collected, preserved and made accessible either through the Library itself or through collaborative arrangements with other libraries and information providers.  By offering a strong national focus in all that it does and cooperating with others who share its goals, the Library contributes to the continuing vitality of Australia's culture and heritage.  For more information, visit www.nla.gov.au/.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent and preservation services to 57,000 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.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

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