Partners support libraries and WorldCat growth
The scale of WorldCat and the non-profit nature of the OCLC cooperative allow us to speak for member libraries to improve the flow of information that helps users find and access resources. OCLC partners with a wide variety of organizations to help get new library resources in front of users faster.
To ensure that libraries always have access to the resources they need, OCLC makes formal agreements with partners who can help. These agreements allow the partners to provide services to a member library using WorldCat data that the library provides. Each agreement varies based on the services offered by the partner organization.
The records libraries need as quickly as possible
OCLC and partners make records for soon-to-be-published items available as quickly as possible so that libraries can share these resources with users. The Library of Congress and other national cataloging agencies provide publishers with cataloging-in-publication (CIP) records to print in the book prior to publication. These CIP records are also added to WorldCat in an effort to share minimal, pre-publication information about the resource.
The CIP upgrade program enhances these minimal WorldCat records, which eliminates the need for each library to upgrade their records individually. Library material vendors who partner with OCLC, including GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO, Ingram and The Donohue Group, supply upgraded records that overlay existing CIP records in WorldCat as soon as the full bibliographic information is available. Also, Follett Titlewave works online to upgrade CIP records.
Efficient, upstream cataloging for libraries
When content providers contribute records to WorldCat, the cataloging is done upstream in the workflow so libraries don’t have to do the cataloging themselves. With Contract Cataloging for Publishers (CCP), OCLC handles record creation, setting holdings, and record delivery.
By working directly with content providers, we help increase speed and efficiency of workflows by serving as the single provider of content from multiple sources and automating holdings feeds from partner publishers.
Content partners value the relationship with OCLC as it helps make their content more widely discoverable, and libraries are assured valuable materials get into the researchers’ hands quickly and easily.
Strength in numbers
OCLC also works with Research Libraries UK (RLUK), a group of 37 leading research libraries in the UK and Ireland, to correctly contribute these collections to WorldCat and then analyze the data to help RLUK make strategic decisions about shared print collection management and resource discovery. WorldCat brings a unique, system-wide perspective to RLUK’s collections, which allows the libraries to collaborate on a deeper level. RLUK and OCLC Research have documented results of this partnership in a final report, Strength in Numbers: The Research Libraries UK (RLUK) Collective Collection.
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