WorldCat® knowledge base

Make your electronic content easier to find, use and manage

The WorldCat knowledge base combines data about your library's electronic resources and linking features that enable access to the content and help you manage the workflows associated with these materials. Unlike data in a traditional knowledge base, WorldCat knowledge base data is not tied to a particular application. Knowledge base data is added and maintained in a single place for use with a growing number of OCLC (and in the future, non-OCLC) services.

WorldCat knowledge base functionality is included as part of your OCLC Cataloging subscription at no additional charge.

Uses of the WorldCat knowledge base in OCLC services:

Integrated link resolution in a full-featured license management solution

OpenURL resolution in the new OCLC License Manager service is powered by data in the WorldCat knowledge base. License Manager goes beyond link resolution to provide a central location for managing the license terms and vendor contact information required for management of electronic resources. It includes a globally-maintained vendor information centre and templates for global management of public and shared licensing terms.

OpenURL resolution in WorldCat Local

The WorldCat knowledge base enables inbound and outbound OpenURL linking and an A to Z journal list in the WorldCat Local service.

One-click access to electronic resources from WorldCat Local search results

WorldCat Local users can link to electronic content such as full-text articles and e-books from brief search results with a single click, when a library's holdings data is in the WorldCat knowledge base. A "View Now" link connects users to full-text articles, e-books and open-access objects. This feature:

• Eliminates multiple clicks previously required to obtain online articles
• Simplifies access to items available through libraries' database subscriptions and in popular digital collections
• Improves the user workflow and ultimately drives more traffic to your electronic resources

WorldCat Local functionality enabled by the WorldCat knowledge base is available at no additional charge for libraries using WorldCat Local, once they have loaded local data into the knowledge base.

Quick and easy resource sharing of your electronic content

WorldCat Resource Sharing and ILLiad subscribers benefit from use of the WorldCat knowledge base with:

• Fast and easy delivery of online articles from your collections.
• Easy sharing of electronic resources without having to manually locate and retrieve needed items, saving staff time and reducing turnaround time for users from days to minutes.
• Fewer loan requests for electronic items your library already owns.

When your library's local data is present in the WorldCat knowledge base, you will increase the efficiency of the way you manage requests for articles and e-books:

• Lending libraries are identified more accurately and item URLS are passed directly to lending libraries in ILL requests. In many cases, staff can complete a loan transaction within minutes, without ever leaving their desk.
• When a user submits a loan request for an item your library already holds, Direct Request for articles sends you a link to the item with a note indicating your library holds the item. This feature helps staff more efficiently process incoming requests for e-articles you own.

This functionality is available at no additional charge for libraries that use WorldCat Resource Sharing or ILLiad, once they have loaded data in the WorldCat knowledge base.

How it works

Overview of WorldCat knowledge base. (Click to enlarge.)

The WorldCat knowledge base combines data about your library's licensed content and linking features that enable access to that content. The knowledge base is comprised of:

• Collection data—The databases or packages purchased by your library. Content providers regularly add and change metadata for these materials, and the WorldCat knowledge base will be updated to reflect these changes.
• Title data—Titles that are part of a collection, including descriptive and identifier metadata.
• Holdings data—An inventory of the titles to which your library or consortium subscribes. Includes the range of coverage for each title and embargo periods. Updated by your library or by OCLC's harvesting program.

Linking logic—Citation data and your institution's affiliation are combined with linking logic defined by the knowledge base to create a link to the full text at the article or title level.The WorldCat knowledge base uses an associated license management tool to connect to your library's license data. This allows identification of collections that your library may loan to other libraries and instructions on how to do so.

Create your own uses for the WorldCat knowledge base. A knowledge base API is available, allowing members to create their own unique solutions. Additional information and support for the API is available through the OCLC Developer Network.

As of September 30, 2011 , the WorldCat knowledge base provides access to 7.6 million records for electronic materials from 136 providers. The knowledge base will continue to grow through content provider and member library contributions.

In the future

In the future, WorldCat knowledge base data will be available for use with more of your library's OCLC services and non-OCLC services. We plan to work with content providers to harvest data directly into the WorldCat knowledge base, saving time and effort for libraries.

Put the WorldCat knowledge base to work for your library

A full OCLC cataloging subscription is required to use WorldCat knowledge base functionality. WorldCat knowledge base is included in your cataloging subscription at no additional charge.

To use the WorldCat knowledge base, complete a knowledge base request form, add data about your electronic collections to the knowledge base and activate the functionality from within the Service Configuration module.

OCLC's partner Pubget provides an automated process for loading data into the WorldCat knowledge base. Through this process, library staff members provide logon and password information for the e-resources to which their library subscribes. Pubget then retrieves up-to-date holdings information directly from content provider sites and provides this to OCLC for addition to the WorldCat knowledge base. Following the initial load, holdings updates occur automatically. The Pubget process saves time for library staff because it eliminates the need to manually transfer holdings information from a local system on an ongoing basis. In addition, because Pubget interacts directly with content providers, many libraries have found that this process gives them more comprehensive access to the content they license than other update methods.

Other options for adding your library's local data to the knowledge base are:

• Add and maintain your holdings via the knowledge base profiling interface.
• Use a data loading process to load content from an existing knowledge base. The data load process gives your library the ability to use your current knowledge base along with the WorldCat knowledge base.

Holdings information in the WorldCat knowledge base is synchronized with records in the WorldCat database daily, to insure that WorldCat contains up-to-date information about the electronic resources available from your library.

Submit the request form to initiate your use of the WorldCat knowledge base. An OCLC Implementation manager will consult with you to set up your knowledge base use.