Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has entered into an agreement with OCLC to use OCLC WorldShare Management Services as its library services platform and move its National Union Catalogue to WorldCat. These moves are designed to make Canada's documentary heritage more widely accessible and available to library users in Canada and around the world.
OCLC was awarded the contract following a Government of Canada public procurement process. OCLC was determined to be the only organisation that was able to meet all of LAC’s requirements.
Under this agreement, current union catalogue data will be loaded and maintained in WorldCat, the most comprehensive union catalogue that currently represents the collections of hundreds of Canadian libraries and thousands of libraries around the world. A subset of WorldCat will be created to produce a Canadian view of the catalogue, and a link to this subset will be available on the LAC website. There are currently more than 122 million holdings from Canadian libraries represented in WorldCat, and as many as 10 million unique items are held by Canadian libraries.
More Canadian libraries will be able to join OCLC to take full advantage of services offered. Many Canadian libraries already subscribe to OCLC interlibrary loan and copy cataloging services. LAC's transition to OCLC will not affect these libraries. As a provision of the agreement, LAC will support small public libraries and small libraries at post-secondary institutions.
WorldShare Management Services (WMS) is the library services platform that offers all the applications needed to manage a library, including acquisitions, circulation, metadata, resource sharing, license management and a single-search discovery interface for library users. WMS also includes analytics tools and a range of standard reports, and allows libraries to develop their own analytics so they can better understand their activities and track key metrics over time.
Libraries worldwide use WMS to share bibliographic records, publisher and knowledge base data, vendor records, serials patterns and more. With WorldCat at its foundation, WMS enables libraries to draw on the collaborative data and work of libraries worldwide for more efficient workflows and avoid duplication of efforts in having to copy metadata in various environments. WMS also provides libraries with the unique opportunity to share innovation, applications, infrastructure, vision and success in serving their users.
As part of the unique features OCLC will offer to LAC, OCLC will continue maintaining the LAC French-language name authority file using WMS. Once these authority records are migrated to the WMS platform and WorldCat, LAC will use WorldShare metadata management applications to create and update French name authorities. LAC French-language authority data will be integrated into OCLC’s cataloging services and continue to be freely accessible through the Virtual International Authority File.
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