WorldCat

**WorldCat** is a very big online catalog, a list of books and things like books in tens of thousands of libraries in many countries.

WorldCat was built by OCLC, which is an organization of libraries. WorldCat is maintained by the group of libraries in OCLC.

## History

In the 1970s, OCLC grew from a regional computer system for 54 Ohio colleges into an international network.

In 1979, the first Canadian and the first international library joined OCLC.

### Timeline

On August 26, 1971, the OCLC Online Union Catalog, now called WorldCat, went online.

- 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

## Other websites

- WorldCat website
- WorldCat Identities
- What is OCLC?

## Infobox (website)

- **name**: WorldCat
- **logo**: WorldCat logo.svg
- **logo alt**: Five-color WorldCat emblem, with WorldCat in black letters and OCLC in smaller grey letters
- **collapsetext**: Screenshot
- **background**: gainsboro
- **caption**: WorldCat homepage as of June 2019
- **commercial**: No
- **type**: Network of library content and services
- **registration**: Optional, but some features require registration (such as writing reviews and making lists or bibliographies)
- **content license**: [http://www.oclc.org/en/policies/copyright.html Copyright policy]
- **owner**: Online Computer Library Center
- **oclc**: 756372754
- **current status**: Online