Worldcat.org has gone live. This is a major step: it consolidates access to the collections and services of thousands of libraries on the open web. 1.3 billion items in approximately 18,000 libraries worldwide, and growing.
There is a downloadable search box to add to your own page. The syntax for linking into worldcat.org is simplified and more memorable.
Its appearance is a tribute to the hard work of many colleagues across OCLC and the leadership of Chip Nilges and Mike Teets. You will notice that it is flagged as beta. This is a beginning: there is a clear schedule of improvement and augmentation for coming months. We want it to be a compelling experience for library users, and to be able to connect them to collections and services effectively. We also hope that it will become a compelling venue through which libraries will want to disclose those collections and services on the open web. For libraries, participation in WorldCat and associated registries means that their collections and services will be visible at Worldcat.org, through Google and Yahoo, and through other partner sites (Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Live, for example).
Increasingly, we see WorldCat as a resource which drives a range of application services: cataloging, resource sharing, collection analysis, end-user discovery and others.
There is a feedback form on the site which we hope to see heavily used!
Update: for some editing and changes to ISBNs.
