European libraries choose WorldCat

US-based Online Computer Library Centre (OCLC) has revealed that four national libraries located in Denmark, Switzerland, Slovenia and Israel have agreed to upload their holdings onto the global online catalogue, WorldCat.org.

The OCLC-owned website holds tens of millions of bibliographic records, aiming to help library users and staff locate resources quickly while linking individual collections into a massive virtual collection.

In Denmark, OCLC and DanskBibliotekCenter (DBC) have agreed to load the Danish National Union Catalogue (DanBib) with holdings into WorldCat, adding around 10 million Danish records in WorldCat.  DBC is responsible for providing the Danish national digital infrastructure as well as managing its national union catalogue. 

Meanwhile, Switzerland-based Informationsverbund Deutschschweiz (IDS) will load the records from the five IDS consortia to the catalogue, amounting to some 10 million bibliographic records and 16 million holdings records.

Slovenia's IZUM - an organisation representing more than 380 academic, public and other libaries - will supply 3 million records. And in Israel, the Malmad Consortium of over 30 academic institutions has secured, as part of their OCLC cataloguing subscription, a batch load of holdings data into WorldCat.

Dr. Sigal Scher, director of the MALMAD Consortium, said: 'The academic libraries in Israel are looking forward to making their holdings more visible and accessible through membership in OCLC and WorldCat.'

OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain Worldcat. The non-profit library service and research organisation aims to increase access to the world's information and reduce the rate of rising library costs.