Global library cooperative Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), US, has announced the National Library of China as a new participant in the OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing service. Under the initiative, the National Library of China will share its rich collections with libraries and researchers worldwide.
Since November 2009, 2.4 million records from the National Library of China have been added to WorldCat, an online resource for finding library materials. With those records in WorldCat, resources from the National Library of China are more visible worldwide through the Web. Once records from the National Library of China are discovered in WorldCat, researchers and scholars will be able to access and obtain these important Chinese materials through WorldCat Resource Sharing.
The National Library of China, which celebrated its centennial in September 2009, claims to be the largest library in Asia with a collection of 30 million volumes and articles. In addition to collecting and preserving records of Chinese culture, the National Library of China provides document consulting services to leaders of the Chinese government to facilitate their decision making, as well as to support research and teaching in China. Now the library will share its rich Chinese collection with libraries worldwide through WorldCat Resource Sharing.
WorldCat Resource Sharing is a unique set of tools built on the WorldCat database through which more than 10,000 libraries in over 40 countries cooperate to create a global network to simplify interlibrary lending. It provides an integrated set of features that help libraries reduce costs, increase efficiency and quickly satisfy user needs.
OCLC's partnership with the National Library of China began in 1986 when OCLC introduced its CJK system to support cataloguing in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) scripts. The National Library of China and OCLC formed a partnership at that time to create in WorldCat the National Bibliography of the Republic Era, 1911-1949. The library now uses the OCLC Connexion service to catalogue its newly acquired titles, and participates in OCLC Worldcat.org for exposure of its holdings on the Web.
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