About OCLC

WorldCat.org makes OCLC member collections visible to Web searchers everywhere.

Since 2005, there have been more than 532 million referrals to WorldCat.org from search engines, Internet booksellers, library portals, commercial publishers and other Web sites.

And, from WorldCat.org, there have been over 29 million click-throughs to local library services.

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Owned and managed by librarians since 1967, OCLC's history lies in cooperation and resource sharing, and its future depends on it.

The membership model is built on the same ideals shared by the libraries the cooperative serves—sharing, community and efficiency. And the benefits of membership are likewise similar to those experienced by users of memory institutions: access to shared resources, a community of study, systematic improvements and opportunities to advance the profession.

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In this 60-second video clip from his last public appearance at OCLC in 2002, OCLC Founder Frederick G. Kilgour stressed that the future of libraries hinges on the work of the individuals who make it happen. He emphasized the importance of innovation and how critical it is for each person to push his or her ideas ahead.

The OCLC cooperative provides a shared global, Web-based platform that librarians use to catalog and share materials on their physical and electronic collections.

About 768 million books and other materials have been cataloged online and more than 204 million interlibrary loans have been arranged using the OCLC system.

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Library users accessed WorldCat via the OCLC FirstSearch service to conduct about 40 million reference searches in 2009. FirstSearch provides seamless electronic access to dozens of databases and more than 10 million full-text and full-image articles. And, users of WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local can now access FirstSearch databases and other OCLC electronic resources through a user-friendly single-search box.

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Librarians guide and shape the cooperative's services and direction through a 15-member Board of Trustees, more than half of whom are librarians, and a global council of librarians, who are elected by regional councils of member libraries.

This governance structure ensures regular and open dialogue between member libraries and OCLC management.

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In this 60-second video clip, Leslie Crutchfield, author of Forces for Good, The Six Practices of High Impact Nonprofits, talks about the elements that make nonprofits excel.

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More than 2.3 million users visit WorldCat.org each month to view more than 12 million pages and 6 million records. And from WorldCat.org, there are about 1 million click throughs to local library services—bibliographic records, shelf-status information and online reference services—each month.

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