WorldCat offers a representation of the global scholarly and cultural record through the lens of library collections. By maintaining holdings in WorldCat, your library joins thousands of others to collaborate and share your collections at scale.
As you think about the future of your print collection, there are new pressures on the use of library space, growing comfort with electronic and digital resources, and more opportunities to share print items with other libraries. Participating in a collective collection through WorldCat removes your obligation to own every print resource your users may request. Instead, you only need to connect with other libraries to access what you need.
With WorldCat as the foundation, we’re already helping many libraries manage down their local print collections with a responsible approach that respects the scholarly and cultural record. The OCLC services built on this foundation give you the information you need to make essential decisions about what print resources to share and what you can count on others to provide.