WorldCat
Type of site | Network of library content and services |
|---|---|
| Available in |
|
| Owner | Online Computer Library Center |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional, but some features require registration (such as writing reviews and making lists or bibliographies) |
| Launched | January 21, 1998[1] |
| Current status | Online |
Content license | Copyright policy |
| OCLC number | 756372754 |
WorldCat is a very big online catalog, a list of books and things like books in tens of thousands of libraries in many countries.[2]
WorldCat was built by OCLC, which is an organization of libraries. WorldCat is maintained by the group of libraries in OCLC.[3]
History
In the 1970s, OCLC grew from a regional computer system for 54 Ohio colleges into an international network.[4]
In 1979, the first Canadian and the first international library joined OCLC.[4]
Timeline
On August 26, 1971, the OCLC Online Union Catalog, now called WorldCat, went online.[5]
- 1975 – Library and Archives Canada begins adding records
- 1978 – Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands) begins to participate
- 1985 – British Library begins adding UKMARC records
- 1987 – National Library of Scotland begins adding
- 1987 – National Library of Wales begins contributing
- 1987 – National Central Library, Taiwan begins adding
- 1991 – Six staff members from the National Library of China help OCLC to add a computerized catalog of Chinese books
- 1991 – National Library of Turkey becomes an OCLC member
- 1992 – The National Library of Australia begins contributing
- 1992 – National and University Library of Iceland begins adding
- 1995 – National Library of the Czech Republic begins contributing
- 1997 – National Library of New Zealand begins contributing
- 1998 – National Library of Ireland begins adding
- 1999 – National Diet Library of Japan begins adding records for Western-language materials
- 1999 – National Library of Lithuania begins contributing
- 1999 – National Library of South Africa begins adding
- 2002 – Singapore National Union Catalog is added
- 2003 – Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library), the Library of Congress and OCLC agree to develop a Virtual International Authority File
- 2003 – Chilean Directorate of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (DIBAM) of the National Library begin contributing
- 2004 – Bibliothèque nationale de France begins contributing
- 2005 – National Library of Finland begins adding
- 2005 – Iraqi National Library and Archive begins adding
- 2006 – Deutsche Nationalbibliothek adds 4 million new records
- 2006 – Dutch Union Catalog is added
- 2007 – National Library of Mexico begins adding
- 2007 – Swiss National Library adds
- 2007 – Kungliga biblioteket (National Library of Sweden) adds
- 2008 – National Library Service, Barbados adds
- 2008 – National Library of Israel adds
- 2008 – National Library of Spain adds
- 2008 – Royal Library of Denmark and Danish Bibliographic Centre add
- 2009 – National and University Library of Slovenia begins adding
- 2010 – National Library of Serbia begins adding
- 2012 – National Library of Norway begins adding
References
- ↑ 1998 is the date of registry of the WorldCat.org domain; see: "WorldCat.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2017-01-21. However, the union catalog that became WorldCat was started three decades earlier, and it was already available on the web to subscriber libraries at OCLC.org several years before WorldCat.org was a registered domain name; see: "OCLC.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
- ↑ "About OCLC". OCLC. Archived from the original on 2022-03-11. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
- ↑ OCLC, "Vision, the world's libraries connected"; retrieved 2012-10-19.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 OCLC, "History of OCLC; retrieved 2012-10-19.
- ↑ OCLC, "Brief history of OCLC activities with national libraries outside the U.S."; retrieved 2012-10-19.
More reading
- Wendy M. Grossman (21 January 2009). "Why you can't find a library book in your search engine: Finding a book at your local library should just involve a simple web search; but thanks to a US cataloguing site, that is far from the case". The Guardian.