Libraries of all types contribute to WorldCat.
Libraries of all types from all over the world contribute to WorldCat records, so the records shared here represent many diverse interests. Every library, museum or archive that contributes metadata to WorldCat receives the membership benefits of the OCLC cooperative. OCLC members range from tiny public libraries in rural areas to major academic libraries spread across multiple buildings in a large city, from specialty libraries with depth in one specific topic to national libraries that encompass a whole nation’s cultural achievements. Each has something unique to share with the world through WorldCat.
Number of WorldCat records enhanced by member libraries:
Last year:1,171,967
(July 2016–June 2017)
Last month:94,140
(June 2017)
![Peter Sidorko [photo]](/National_Library/im_/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat/update/photo_peter_sidorko.png){kind=small}
“Global library cooperation…”
National libraries
National libraries all over the world share their collections through WorldCat. This allows libraries everywhere to connect people with information about many cultures and national identities.
Botswana
The Botswana National Library Service
- WH: 43,992
Canada
Library and Archives Canada-Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
- WH: 1,647,228
- OR: 1,620,733
Bibliothèque et Archives nationale du Québec
- WH: 2,408,519
- OR: 1,032,820
Lesotho
Lesotho National Library and Archives
- WH: 1,932
Trinidad & Tobago
National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad & Tobago
- WH: 9,694
- OR: 4,731
United Kingdom
- WH: 20,616,286
- OR: 9,811,117
The National Library of Scotland
- WH: 5,146,919
- OR: 1,866,264
- WH: 258,949
- OR: 47,811
United States
- WH: 13,037,616
- OR: 12,373,154
- WH: 986,186
- OR: 413,947
- WH: 80,949
- OR: 20,345
- WH: 3,705,339
- OR: 3,396,501
WH = Number of WorldCat holdings OR = Number of original records
Data current as of June 2017
Academic libraries
Academic libraries support students and faculty with specialized research on a wide variety of topics. They contribute records to WorldCat for these resources and their unique holdings, such as dissertations, theses, published research papers and often the data sets that support that research.
Search in one place for resources worldwide.
![interior of the library at John Cabot University [photo]](/National_Library/im_/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat/update/inset_cabot.jpg)
“The power of WorldCat as an information retrieval tool is enormous.”
Elisabetta Morani, Head Librarian
John Cabot University, Italy
Improve the quality of your online catalog.
![woman using the library at Biblical Theological Seminary [photo]](/National_Library/im_/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat/update/inset_bts.jpg)
“The students appreciate that the catalog is available in Korean [through the WorldCat Discovery interface]. I've seen a number of them with it set to that.”
Lydia Putnam, Technical Services Manager
Biblical Theological Seminary, United States
Public libraries
Public libraries form the centerpiece of their communities by providing a wide variety of services and by archiving local history and genealogical resources. By cataloging their materials in WorldCat, public libraries connect people around the world with resources for job searches, school science projects, book clubs, cooking and many other topics.
Satisfy a wider range of needs through worldwide resource sharing.
![exterior of Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library [photo]](/National_Library/im_/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat/update/inset_munroe.jpg)
“The breadth and depth of what's available through the OCLC resource-sharing network is an invaluable source of materials for our community.”
Diana Parker, Interlibrary Loan Coordinator
Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library, United States
Pull your archives out of the basement and share them with the world.
![Logo for Picture South Perth [photo]](/National_Library/im_/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat/update/inset_south_perth.jpg)
“...our users ... can now browse the collections at their leisure, at any time of day, from any location...”
Farah Kabbani, Local History Librarian
South Perth Library, Australia
Special libraries
Special libraries support distinct organizations, such as a government office, church, corporation, hospital, museum or research center. These libraries contribute incredibly deep collections to WorldCat on very specific topics that are invaluable to researchers.
Move from cataloging to curating for your users.
![people in Pritzker Military Museum and Library [photo]](/National_Library/im_/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat/update/inset_pritzker.jpg)
“We're putting VIAF numbers into Wikipedia and helping to build those connections between Wikipedia and WorldCat.”
Theresa Embrey, Chief Librarian
Pritzker Military Museum & Library, United States
Facilitate research through group catalogs.
![Painting: The Return to Amsterdam of the Second Expedition to the East Indies, Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom, 1599, courtesy of the Rijksmuseum [photo]](/National_Library/im_/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat/update/inset_rijksmuseum.jpg)
“The benefit of this move to WorldCat is how scalable it is.”
Geert-Jan Koot, Head
Rijksmuseum Research Library, Netherlands
OCLC improves WorldCat through cooperative management.
The cooperative nature of WorldCat lets libraries participate in OCLC's continuing expansion and enhancement of WorldCat bibliographic records and collections. Not only can librarians contribute, edit and export WorldCat records, but most can also make changes to core bibliographic data in WorldCat master records that other libraries can localize for their own catalogs. Libraries may have different levels of authorization based on their participation in WorldCat.
Catalogers can add records to the WorldCat bibliographic catalog in whatever authorized cataloging guideline or rules their institutions use, including RDA, AACR2 and specialized community standards. They can export records from WorldCat in various MARC and Dublin Core formats to use in library management systems and other systems. OCLC standardizes the data that libraries provide to make the records useful to the whole cooperative.
Sharing materials across borders in Europe
![Carol Bream [photo]](/National_Library/im_/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat/update/photo_carol_bream.png){kind=small}
“Searching for information…”
Making WorldCat data work for libraries
OCLC works on behalf of libraries to make high-quality WorldCat data available for libraries and partners all over the world to share and reuse across many systems, sites and applications. To ensure that WorldCat remains valuable and sustainable, the OCLC Board of Trustees has collaborated with member libraries to develop several policies and guidelines that outline a code of good practice based on shared values, trust and reciprocity. The OCLC Global Council has asked members to follow the community norms set forth in WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative when using and transferring individual WorldCat records and aggregated sets of those records.
WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative
Using the data
OCLC strives to make WorldCat records accessible and valuable to libraries and researchers. Although OCLC holds the copyright in WorldCat database as a compilation, the OCLC membership endorses the Open Data Commons Attribution (ODC-BY) license with respect to information contained in individual records. In fact, OCLC has implemented an ODC-BY license notice for its own projects. This license gives WorldCat users a firm foundation upon which to build new applications, perform analyses, create new tools and otherwise build new things using their library information.