OCLC Research:Selected projectsOCLC Research:Selected projects

Eric ChildressLarry Olszewski

Presentation forDpto. Biblioteconomía y Documentación Universidad Carlos III de MadridMadrid29 February 2008

AgendaAgenda

• About:

• OCLC

• OCLC Research

• Selected projects:

• VIAF (Virtual International Authority File)

• WorldCat Identities

• DeweyBrowser

• OCLC WorldMap

OCLCOCLC

• Founded 1967 in Ohio, U.S.A.

• Non-profit

• Dedicated to public purposes:

• Reduce the rate of rise of library costs

• Further access to information

• World’s largest library cooperative

• 60,000 libraries

• 112 countries

CanadaMexicoUnited States

AustraliaChina

FranceGermany

Netherlands

SwitzerlandU.K.

OCLC OfficesOCLC Offices

OCLC ServicesOCLC Services

WorldCatWorldCat

• Number of bibliographic records:

• 98,765,513

• How often a record is added:

• Every 10 seconds

• Number of holdings:

• 1,219,355,469

• Number of countries represented:

• 112 countries and territories around the world

• Number of languages and dialects represented:

• More than 470

• How often a request is filled through WorldCat Resource Sharing:

• Every 4 seconds

OCLC ResearchOCLC Research

• A leading research center devoted to supporting OCLC’s public mission on behalf of libraries, archives and museums

• Scientists, programmers, other staff work to explore issues, try new techniques, explore new technology, prototype new services.

• OCLC Research has been instrumental in the development of:

• PURLs (Persistent URLs)

• Dublin Core

• OAI (Open Archives Initiative)

• SRU/W (Search & Retreive)

VIAF (Virtual International Authority File)VIAF (Virtual International Authority File)

Primary objectives:

1. Identify the same person or organization in multiple national authority files

2. Link the corresponding authority records

Value:

• Potentially lowers the cost of authority work

• Multiple authorized forms may co-exist

• Better data-mining (including FRBR) and searching

• VIAF will made available on the Web for wide use by libraries, search engines, others

VIAF (cont.)VIAF (cont.)

How VIAF works:

1. National libraries supply OCLC with national bibliographic files and authority files

2. OCLC-developed software:

• Identifies key relationships (e.g., author name to works, to co-authors, to subjects)

• Matches same author with different names

• Distinguishes same name but different authors

3. Links between matched authority records are generated and stored

WorldCat IdentitiesWorldCat Identities

• Using data mining techniques OCLC builds a summary page for persons and corporate bodies referenced in WorldCat bibliographic records (25 million+)

• Data is derived from bibliographic data and authority records and holdings in WorldCat

• Special features such as a publication timeline included:

DeweyBrowserDeweyBrowser

• Interface to 2.5 million WorldCat records with DDC numbers

• Browse by DDC class

• Display captions in English, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish

• Supports facetted browsing:

• Format

• Language

• OCLC audience level

Some Global Aspects of WorldCatSome Global Aspects of WorldCat

Content Languages: 473

47% of WC non-English

Top 5 non-English:

German: 9.8 million

French: 5.4 million

Spanish: 3.3 million

Dutch: 2.5 million

Chinese: 2.0 million

Content Languages: 473

47% of WC non-English

Top 5 non-English:

German: 9.8 million

French: 5.4 million

Spanish: 3.3 million

Dutch: 2.5 million

Chinese: 2.0 million

Non-English Metadata Language:

16.5 million (36 languages)

Top 5:

German: 5.4 million Dutch: 4.9 million

French: 1.7 million Finnish: 0.7 million

Japanese: 0.7 million

Non-English Metadata Language:

16.5 million (36 languages)

Top 5:

German: 5.4 million Dutch: 4.9 million

French: 1.7 million Finnish: 0.7 million

Japanese: 0.7 million

Materials w/non-US origins:

47.8 million (65%)

Top 5:

Germany: 8.8 million

UK: 7.3 million

France: 3.6 million

Netherlands: 2.7 million

Canada: 2.6 million

Materials w/non-US origins:

47.8 million (65%)

Top 5:

Germany: 8.8 million

UK: 7.3 million

France: 3.6 million

Netherlands: 2.7 million

Canada: 2.6 million

OCLC WorldMap: ObjectivesOCLC WorldMap: Objectives

Geographically represent WorldCat data

•Holdings by country of publication

•Published languages

•Published titles

OCLC WorldMap: ObjectivesOCLC WorldMap: Objectives

Geographically represent data from other sources

• Number of

• Libraries

• Volumes

• Librarians

• Registered users

• Publishers

• Cultural heritage institutions

• Dollars spent

• People

OCLC WorldMapOCLC WorldMap

OCLC WorldMapOCLC WorldMap

OCLC WorldMapOCLC WorldMap

OCLC WorldMapOCLC WorldMap

Questions?Questions?

• VIAF

• http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/viaf/

• WorldCat Identities

• http://orlabs.oclc.org/Identities/

• DeweyBrowser

• http://deweybrowser.oclc.org/ddcbrowser2/index_spa.html

• OCLC WorldMap

• http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/worldmap

Eric ChildressLarry Olszewski

©2008 OCLC, Inc.