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.OCLC, "Vision, the world's libraries connected"; retrieved 2012-10-19. 

History
In the 1970s, OCLC grew from a regional computer system for 54 Ohio colleges into an international network.OCLC,  "History of OCLC; retrieved 2012-10-19.

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.OCLC,   "Brief history of OCLC activities with national libraries outside the U.S."; retrieved 2012-10-19. 

 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 

 More reading 


 Other websites 
 WorldCat website
 WorldCat Identities
   What is OCLC?

Category:1971 establishments
Category:American websites