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What is OCLC?

Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization. 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 benefits for publishers

  • Expertise in metadata creation
    We catalog in all formats, including electronic resources, and in 60 languages.
  • A trusted source for quality metadata
    We ensure quality through our quality control programs and adoption of international standards.
  • Increased visibility to the library market
    We serve more than 71,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories around the globe; together we have built the WorldCat database, the most comprehensive bibliographic database available.

Learn more about OCLC.

What is WorldCat?

WorldCat is a global network of library-management and user-facing services built upon cooperatively-maintained databases of bibliographic and institutional metadata. WorldCat enhances productivity across the full range of library workflows—from cataloging to resource sharing to discovery and delivery—by intelligently reusing contributed data, and makes library resources more visible on the Internet by distributing data across a growing number of partner services and Web technologies.

WorldCat benefits for publishers

  • People broadly searching the Web find publisher titles via library collections
    Library content including publisher titles and online services are discovered by people at the Web's busiest sites—including Google and Yahoo!—using the method they know: simple keywords. Libraries pull in new users and give existing ones a familiar way to reach them, and publisher titles are discovered in more places.
  • You get into the Web generation's info-toolbox
    Internet users don't just search—they interact with what they find. WorldCat.org, the open-Web destination for access to WorldCat, lets them build lists, contribute reviews and spread information about library items, including publisher titles, all around the social Web.
  • Libraries deliver local and global resources to their users in a single search
    WorldCat enables libraries to connect their users' search experience with library management systems. Today, that means WorldCat, library catalogs, local availability and resource sharing. Soon, OCLC will take the next steps and pilot Web-scale delivery and circulation, license management, print and electronic acquisitions, and more.
  • People know quickly if they've found the right item
    Cover art, reviews, excerpts and other rich evaluative information built into many WorldCat records help them determine if a title is relevant or worth their time.
  • People find the materials that are hard to find
    If it's been published—rare books, research articles, dissertations or microfilm—chances are it's listed in WorldCat, along with the libraries that have it.
  • Multiple-format title display is simplified
    Information seekers don't wade through different records for versions of a popular title, such as the movie, the audiobook or translations. Varied expressions of a source work are collapsed in a single WorldCat record display.
  • Cataloging is fast and high-quality
    High hit rates and standards-based quality control mean users quickly find authoritative, accurate WorldCat records. WorldCat supports many formats and languages.
  • 95 percent or better of borrowing requests are filled
    The diverse materials of a 9,100-library network result in customers who don't care where information lives. Onsite users can perform self-serve requests right from a reference interface, and they have materials in-hand faster, including publisher titles.
  • You become part of a long history of technological advancement for libraries
    WorldCat is the centerpiece of OCLC, a 30-year-old cooperative committed to developing technology and standards that add efficiencies and speed access to information..