Talk:WorldCat

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WorldCat Identities

There is a proposed project to systematically link from Wikipedia biographical articles to WorldCat Identities: those interested are invited to sign up at the project proposal page! Dsp13 15:29, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OCLC's website describes WorldCat as "a worldwide union catalog created and maintained collectively by 9,031 institutions" ([1] accessed on 10/26/2007). This figure differs greatly from 50,000+ libraries listed in the first paragraph of this article. Where did the 50,000 number come from? Is this a mistake, or an issue of semantics? Either way something needs to be changed to avoid confusion. 71.161.142.66 02:08, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

each institute has five libraries? sounds like a high figure to me Mathmo ^Talk 01:30, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can't speak for other institutions, but I work at UC Davis where we actually have six different libraries: Medical (at UCD Med Center in Sacramento); Law; Health Sciences; Physical Sciences & Engineering; Agricultural and Resource Economics; and finally Peter J. Shields (general/main) Library (last 5 all on UC Davis campus). Jrv (talk) 22:01, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The above proposed project is now archived at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Archive 2#WorldCat Identities - external links, with the last comment a suggestion it be a task force of Wikipedia:WikiProject Microformats, but a search of the archives there find no mention. -84user (talk) 13:44, 24 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not purchased?

What exactly does "WorldCat itself is not directly purchased by libraries" mean? Does it mean some basic version of WorldCat is free to libraries, or does it mean libraries must purchase WorldCat, but through a reseller? Superm401 - Talk 01:43, 2 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

After being a contractor at OCLC, I'll try take a stab at this question, even though this answer is not timely in the slightest. A library doesn't have to purchase access to the website WorldCat. However there are paid services that OCLC sells, like keeping track of a library's holdings, synchronizing their card catalog with the OCLC database, etc. Those services aren't free but they do impact the database that powers the WorldCat website. However, once a library's data is in the system, it's available to the public, which also includes other libraries.

The other thought the author may have been considering is the fact that OCLC is basically owned and paid for by libraries. It's not a system of stocks but it's similar. -Legaia (talk) 17:48, 21 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for sharing your insight. I tried to clarify this a bit in the article. Superm401 - Talk 03:22, 22 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Advert style

I fixed the language of the article and shortened it, fewer sections. Mercurywoodrose (talk) 16:36, 28 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Worldcat shows private library holdings when accessed from a university library, but not from elsewhere?

I know talk pages aren't normally for questions about the subject of an article, but if we can get a source for this it would make a good addition to the article. I've noticed that when searching Worldcat for a book from a university library computer, it shows (in gray) holdings at many private libraries, such as R&D firms and museums, which I've never seen when accessing Worldcat from anyplace else.

Is this some special feature that's only provided to educational or library users, or is there some special option under advanced search that enables this? Squidfryerchef (talk) 19:54, 12 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure. I know those holdings have always been in WorldCat for many years but it's only when you pointed it out now that I realized they don't show private libraries in Open WorldCat. My assumption (but I can't prove it) is that private libraries don't want to be bothered by ordinary laypersons looking for books anyway, so that's why OCLC didn't add them to Open WorldCat. Keep in mind that WorldCat was originally intended for experienced librarians and academic researchers (who would know how to use interlibrary loan to get books or copies of relevant portions thereof out of private libraries) and Open WorldCat is a radical new direction for OCLC. It means that libraries can help everyone find rare books more quickly. But it also means that a lot of academic libraries are getting a lot more inquiries from a larger user population than their traditional core user populations! --Coolcaesar (talk) 05:49, 13 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I know the worldcat.org website is a recent development but that's exactly what I'm seeing this on. I'm talking about literally walking up to a PC in a library and opening up a web browser, not a special library database. I don't seem to be logged into Worldcat in any sense, but the results are very different than when connecting from a non-.edu domain. Squidfryerchef (talk) 16:10, 13 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

List of libraries

Is there a way to find a list of all the libraries that are part of Worldcat? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.185.130.11 (talk) 20:37, 11 January 2010 (UTC) That would be the database of OCLC members, which is here. Note that WorldCat Registry, mentioned on that page, is a separate service apart from the list of members. --Coolcaesar (talk) 07:07, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]