OCLC has added the records of a group of more than 100 public libraries in the province of Trento, Italy, to WorldCat. This addition significantly increases the number of Italian language records in the world’s largest database of items held in libraries. With their records in WorldCat, these Italian libraries’ collections are more visible and accessible to people around the world interested in Italian literature, history and culture.
The 136 public libraries and branches in the province of Trento together use the Catalogo Bibliografico Trentino (CBT), their regional union catalog. The CBT holds 1.6 million records, about 1 million of which are Italian-language records, representing 3.6 million holdings. CBT has contributed 1.2 million unique records to WorldCat, and will continue to add records as the catalog is updated regularly.
It was the libraries’ desire to increase visibility of their collections on the Internet, for those who start their search for information often begin through websites like Yahoo! and Google. OCLC partnerships with those and other search providers make it possible for search results to include library materials from WorldCat, the world’s largest bibliographic database. From those results, online searchers can find what they need online or at a library close to them.
“We are very pleased with our presence in WorldCat,” said Franco Panizza, Assessor for the Culture of the Province of Trento, which coordinates the CBT. “The richness of our collections should not remain available only to our own users. Now anyone in the world can find our collections and enjoy what we have to offer. This is not only to the benefit of the user, but also of the library, which will see its collections and services used much more broadly.”
Contributing records to WorldCat also means that the libraries become members of the OCLC cooperative. As members, they can participate in OCLC’s governance and have access to valuable OCLC research, which can help them plan for the future. Also, with their records in WorldCat, libraries can easily utilize other OCLC services in the future, from integrated discovery with WorldCat Local to cloud services via the OCLC WorldShare Platform.
“As a library service provider, OCLC is quite unique with regards to its cooperative structure,” said Gabriele Lunati, managing director of Ifnet Srl, OCLC’s distributor in Italy. “Thanks to the collaboration among the members, libraries can save money and other resources. And as part of the global network that OCLC offers them, they can enhance their local relevance and better serve their patrons.”
