ABES to add French Sudoc records to WorldCat
OCLC and ABES (l’Agence Bibliographique de l’Enseignement Supérieur), in France, have signed an agreement to load 9 million records from Système Universitaire de documentation (Sudoc), the cataloguing system for French academic libraries managed by ABES, into WorldCat, the largest global online resource for finding information in libraries. As a result of this agreement, collections of 110 participating Sudoc institutions that represent over 1,000 libraries will be visible to searchers worldwide through WorldCat.org.
The addition of Sudoc records in WorldCat, planned for the first quarter of 2010, will increase visibility of collections from the French academic world.
In addition to the valuable worldwide, online visibility of their records, participating in WorldCat brings the Sudoc libraries more benefits. "Thanks to their contribution, the libraries become OCLC members," says Raymond Bérard, director of the ABES, "and as such they can, for example, use the WorldCat API to develop their own specific applications. Further, as OCLC members, these Sudoc libraries can vote on a regional level in the OCLC governance structure."
"We are very pleased that ABES has agreed to contribute these records to WorldCat," says Rein van Charldorp, managing director of OCLC in Europe, Middle East and Africa. "OCLC has been working with ABES for more than 10 years now and this further extension of our cooperation is the logical next step. The worldwide library community will benefit significantly from the enrichment of WorldCat with the Sudoc titles."