WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway helps maximize Web visibility

New service makes it easy for libraries to upload metadata from unique collections with CONTENTdm software

By Bob Murphy

Photo-trichromatic printing: in theory and practice / by C. G. Zander. Leicester, [1896] “Prismatic Solar Spectrum.” Frontispiece. Forms part of the David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Reproduction. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Library.

OCLC has released the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway, a new service that helps libraries and other institutions maximize the Internet visibility of unique primary source materials, such as digital photos, newspapers, letters and diaries.

The Gateway is available to all users of OCLC CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software at no additional charge.

The Gateway offers libraries a self-service tool to easily upload metadata from their unique digital content to WorldCat, the world’s largest online resource for finding items held in libraries. Once the metadata is in WorldCat, libraries’ digital collections are more visible and discoverable by Web searchers through WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local (including the "quick start" version), Google, Yahoo! and other popular search engines.

“Libraries, museums and archives should do whatever they can to get their materials available online and expose their collections to users−wherever they are−on the Web,” said Roy Tennant, Senior Program Officer, OCLC Research. “The WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway is an easy and effective way to do this.”

The Gateway has been piloted in 12 institutions. The pilot participants used the Gateway self-service tools to upload thousands of records from their CONTENTdm collections into WorldCat. Because they have used the Gateway to set up profiles for their collections, the pilot users’ metadata will be regularly uploaded to WorldCat as they add to their digital collections over time.

Professional criminals of America / by Thomas Byrnes. New York, [c1886]. “The Inspector’s Model” Page no. 52[A] Forms part of the David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Reproduction. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Library.

“The Gateway is an important tool for the Clark to broaden the visibility of its collections,” says Penny Baker, Collections Management Librarian from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, one of the institutions that participated in the pilot. “From there we have created WorldCat lists and have also tied in online interactive communities, such as Facebook and other Web 2.0 tools.”

Here is one of the WorldCat lists created by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Since May, libraries have uploaded more than 47,000 records into WorldCat via the Gateway. As libraries, museums and other cultural heritage organizations continue to upload CONTENTdm metadata, they are creating a collective digital repository to enrich the resources available to their end users. End users will be able to search WorldCat to find the resources they need from their library’s digital collections of rare, historic or local materials, along with materials provided by other libraries around the world. Users will be able to click on items and visit these unique collections virtually by viewing items immediately on their computer screens−anytime, from anywhere.

Images reproduced with permission from the Library of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

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