News: At 2:21:34 p.m. EDT on August 11th, 2005, Anne Slane, a cataloger for Worthington (Ohio) Libraries, entered holdings information for the book The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the 60s Pop Sensation, becoming the one billionth holding record in the WorldCat database.
What is it? WorldCat is a worldwide union catalog created and maintained collectively by more than 9,000 member institutions. With millions of online records built from the bibliographic and ownership information of contributing libraries, it is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind.
Access: The complete WorldCat database cannot be searched freely on the Internet. Instead, the user needs to go through a library that has purchased a subscription. Many libraries offer access to this database via the Internet with a library card. If, for example, you have a membership with the Godfrey Memorial Library, you can search WorldCat online.
Practical Use: W. Eguene and Joyce Cox published a new history of Washington County, Tennessee in 2001. I waited for the Family History Library to obtain a copy of it. By 2004, they still did not have it in their holdings. I then used the WorldCat database (with my $35 annual subscription to Godfrey) to locate a library that had the book. WorldCat gave me a list of 34 libraries worldwide that had the book. I printed this list, brought it to my local public library, and through their Inter-Library Loan (ILL) service, within a week, I had a copy in my home to use.
If you already have a library card for your public library, you may already have access to this great resource. Give your library a call — and you may soon have access to the collections of the world.
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