Editing WorldCat (section)

{{Short description|International union library catalog}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2017}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox website
| name                 = WorldCat
| logo                 = WorldCat logo.svg
| logo_size            =
| logo_alt             = Five-color WorldCat emblem, with WorldCat in black letters and OCLC in smaller grey letters
| logo_caption         =
| screenshot           = WorldCat homepage.png
| collapsible          = y
| collapsetext         = Screenshot
| background           = gainsboro <!-- for collapsetext heading; default grey (gainsboro) -->
| screenshot_size      =
| screenshot_alt       =
| caption              = WorldCat [[homepage]] as of June 2019
| url                  = {{Official URL}}
| 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)
| language             = {{hlist|Chinese (Simplified)|Chinese (Traditional)|Czech|Dutch|English|French|German|Italian|Korean|Japanese|Portuguese|Spanish|Thai|Urdu}}
| language_count       = 13
| language_footnote    = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.worldcat.org/account/?page=searchItems|title=Search for library items|website=WorldCat|publisher=[[OCLC]]|access-date=2017-03-29|archive-date=September 22, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070922180208/https://www.worldcat.org/account/?page=searchItems|url-status=live}}</ref>
| num_users            =
| content_license      = [https://policies.oclc.org/en/copyright.html Copyright policy]
| programming_language =
| owner                = [[OCLC]]
| launch_date          = {{start date and age|1998|1|21}} (date of registry of the new [[domain name]]; the database has existed since 1971)<ref>1998 is the date of registry of the WorldCat.org domain; see: {{cite web|url=http://whois.domaintools.com/worldcat.org|title=WorldCat.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools|work=[[WHOIS]]|access-date=2017-01-21|archive-date=June 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190620011555/http://whois.domaintools.com/worldcat.org|url-status=live}} However, the union catalog that became WorldCat was started three decades earlier, and it was already available on the web to subscriber libraries at OCLC.org several years before WorldCat.org was a registered domain name; see: {{cite web|url=http://whois.domaintools.com/oclc.org|title=OCLC.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools|work=[[WHOIS]]|access-date=2019-06-26|archive-date=June 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626214826/http://whois.domaintools.com/oclc.org|url-status=live}}</ref>
| issn                 = <!-- ISSN, e.g. 1085-6706 (automatically linked to http://www.worldcat.org) -->
| oclc                 = 756372754
| current_status       = Online
}}

'''WorldCat''' is a [[union catalog]] that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly [[library|libraries]]), in many countries, that are current or past members of the [[OCLC]] global cooperative.<ref>The 2012–2013 OCLC Annual Report noted that the number of "participating libraries (includes active and inactive symbols)" was 78,985: {{cite report |url=https://cdm15003.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15003coll7/id/108 |title=2012–2013 OCLC Annual Report |page=5 |oclc=1226313226 |access-date=2022-03-10}}</ref> It is operated by OCLC, Inc.<ref name="InsideWorldCat">{{cite web |title=Inside WorldCat |url=https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/inside-worldcat.html |publisher=OCLC |access-date=19 June 2021 |archive-date=January 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130152208/https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/inside-worldcat.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Many of the OCLC member libraries collectively maintain WorldCat's [[database]], the world's largest [[bibliographic database]].<ref name="largest">{{cite book |last=Oswald |first=Godfrey |date=2017 |chapter=Largest unified international library catalog |title=Library world records |edition=3rd |location=Jefferson, NC |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |page=291 |isbn=9781476667775 |oclc=959650095 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G4owDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA291}}</ref> The database includes other information sources in addition to member library collections.<ref>{{cite web |title=Content available through WorldCat Discovery |url=https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat-discovery/contentlist.xls |format=XLS |language=en |publisher=OCLC |access-date=2020-09-22 |archive-date=September 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922145435/https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/worldcat-discovery/contentlist.xls |url-status=live }}</ref> OCLC makes WorldCat itself available free to libraries, but the catalog is the foundation for other subscription OCLC services (such as [[interlibrary loan|resource sharing]] and collection management). WorldCat is used by librarians for cataloging and research and by the general public.

{{As of|December 2021}}, WorldCat contained over 540 million bibliographic records in 483 languages, representing over 3 billion physical and digital library assets,<ref name="InsideWorldCat" /> and the WorldCat persons dataset ([[Data mining|mined]] from WorldCat) included over 100 million people.<ref>{{cite web |title=Data strategy [WorldCat] |website=oclc.org |url=https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/data-strategy.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327085820/https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/data-strategy.html |archive-date=2019-03-27 |access-date=2018-02-11}}</ref>