Word of the Week

OCLC
People in Library Land toss this term around quite often. But what is OCLC? OCLC is actually a non-profit organization who exists to give libraries greater access to information while reducing costs. What does this mean to us chickens at Cook Library? Lots! This is where the library gets most of its catalog records. Why start from scratch when cataloging a book or DVD when it’s already been done and ready to go? After all, OCLC owns the Dewey Decimal System! These are uniform records all set up to work with computer systems.
But there is much more to OCLC than just cataloging. OCLC maintains NetLibrary, our eBook and eAudiobook provider. OCLC provides access to online indexes of journals, and documents. We might not subscribe to The Journal of Parasitology, but we can quickly retrieve complete articles from the journal through OCLC. OCLC gives our Interlibrary Loan Department access to material across the country, and this brings us to Worldcat. Worldcat is just what it sounds like; a library catalog including holdings from libraries around the world! We can see titles owned by libraries from Fremont to Freiberg, Germany!

This week’s WOW is brought to you by guest WOW-er Mary Andrew. Thanks, Mary!