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Products and Services : Digital Collection Management : DLF/OCLC Registry of Digital Masters

The DLF/OCLC Registry of Digital Masters provides a central place for library staff to search for, and find, digitally preserved materials. As such, the Registry broadens access to your organization’s publicly-available digital books and journals. The Digital Library Federation (DLF) and OCLC developed the Registry, which functions as a subset of WorldCat.

To be included in the Registry, an item must appear in a digital format. Typical items include monographs and serials. A registered object ensures that the digital object (or soon to be digitized) followed established standards and best practices for digitization and that the institution that digitized it has made a commitment to digital preservation of this object.

Benefits of the Registry

Adding records to the Registry of Digital Masters provides:

  • Easier access to digital or to-be-digitized materials for staff
  • The ability to find digital materials that are available elsewhere
  • Assurance that you may not need to digitize certain materials (if they are already in the Registry, you save resources and can direct your efforts to other materials)

The Registry of Digital Masters also provides you with information about:

  • Digital or to-be-digitized materials
  • The level at which materials have been digitized—Is it adequate enough that another digital copy is not required?
  • The institution responsible for the digitization

Guidelines for best practices

The Registry of Digital Masters is a joint DLF/OCLC venture. Members of both the DLF and OCLC are helping to establish best practices. Based on DLF functional requirements for both digitally reformatted and born-digital materials, guidelines for creating or editing records are available, providing Registry elements mapped to MARC 21 elements, a few examples, access restrictions terminology, a glossary and a “cheat sheet” of minimal requirements needed to create a Registry record.

Learn more about the guidelines and how to get involved

Learn more about the standardized terminology for access restriction

Learn more about the development of the Registry of Digital Masters

How to find Registry records

Search WorldCat (through FirstSearch or the Connexion browser) to find digital items in the DLF/OCLC Registry. Registry metadata in the WorldCat record will tell you:

  • That a preservation master exists
  • That a use copy is available and accessible
  • Which institution digitized or intends to digitize it
  • The level at which the material has been digitized
  • The technical standards applied to the digitization process

To search for Registry records, use ac=dlr as a keyword search in WorldCat.

Connexion browser users may also find these items using the ac=dlr in the Command line or dlr as a keyword search.

Get assistance for the DLF/OCLC Registry of Digital Masters

For questions or problems, contact your nearest OCLC office or regional service provider