OCLC Cataloging Community Meeting

This virtual community event provides an opportunity to hear about important work by community members and learn about OCLC cataloging and metadata services.

Upcoming events

12 February 2025

OCLC cataloging community meeting

This virtual community event provides an opportunity to hear about important work by community members and learn about OCLC cataloging and metadata services.

Past events

21 June 2024

Part one highlighted an initiative to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in library metadata. In part two, OCLC staff shared updates on our cataloging products and services.  


15 May 2024 - for libraries in Australia and New Zealand

This May meeting for libraries in Australia and New Zealand is a free, virtual event. We have a guest speaker talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in library metadata. We will also be hearing from OCLC staff with updates on our cataloging products and services.


24 April 2024 - for libraries in Europe, Middle East, and Africa

This April meeting for libraries in Europe, Middle East and Africa is a free, virtual event. We have a guest speaker talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in library metadata. We will also be hearing from OCLC staff with updates on our cataloging products and services.


2 February 2024

The February 2024 session in this semi-annual virtual event series provided an opportunity to engage with panelists and fellow cataloging community members about initiatives to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in library metadata and hear from OCLC staff about updates to our cataloging products and services, WorldCat metadata quality and more.


25 October 2023 - for libraries in Europe, Middle East, and Africa

The October 2023 session in this virtual event series is oriented for cataloguing practitioners and decision-makers in libraries in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions. We will kick-off with a session by Dr. Pardaad Chamsaz, Metadata Lead for Equity and Inclusion at the British Library, talking about the Library’s inclusive cataloguing efforts as part of its multi-year Race Equality Action Plan.

OCLC staff will then summarize the work completed to address rapid harm reduction through locally-defined subjects in WorldCat Discovery, provide cataloguing updates, and linked data developments.

Rounding off, we will look at work relating to metadata quality, including how machine learning models are revolutionizing de-duplication efforts in WorldCat.


9 June 2023

The June 2023 session in this semi-annual virtual event series offered updates on current topics of interest and ample opportunity for interaction with cataloging community speakers and OCLC staff. We started by discussing the essential work happening to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in library metadata. The second half of the meeting focused on OCLC product updates and enhancing WorldCat metadata quality.


3 February 2023

The February 2023 session in this semi-annual virtual event series offered updates on current topics of interest and ample opportunity for interaction with cataloging community speakers and OCLC staff. We started by discussing the essential work happening to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in library metadata. Next, we provided updates on OCLC cataloging tools, including linked data services, and covered some new and ongoing WorldCat quality enhancement initiatives.


3 June 2022

The June 2022 session in this semi-annual virtual event series offered updates on current topics of interest and ample opportunity for interaction with cataloging community speakers and OCLC staff. We started by discussing the essential work happening to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in library metadata. Next, we provided updates on OCLC cataloging tools, including linked data services, and covered some new and ongoing WorldCat quality enhancement initiatives.


28 January 2022

This virtual gathering offered discussions on efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as our collective work toward more respectful and inclusive description. After a short break, we discussed updates to OCLC cataloging and metadata services, WorldCat quality initiatives, and much more. Recordings of presentations, as well as slides and notes, are available.  


18 June 2021

During OCLC's third virtual cataloging community meeting, cataloging members had an opportunity to share information on pertinent cataloging topics with OCLC staff and more than a thousand catalogers around the globe. Presentation recordings, slides, and notes are available.  


15 January 2021

This virtual cataloging community meeting continued the conversation from the successful June 2020 session and expands prior Expert Cataloging Community Sessions at ALA Annual and Midwinter.


17 June 2020

OCLC held our first virtual cataloging community meeting, which expanded on previously held Expert Cataloging Community Sharing sessions at ALA. During this meeting, cataloging members had an opportunity to share information on pertinent cataloging topics with OCLC staff and fellow catalogers from around the globe.