Library information provider OCLC, US, and the National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa) have signed an agreement to add 1.3 million Polish library records to WorldCat. WorldCat claims to be the world's largest resource for discovery of library materials and increasing the visibility of these collections for researchers around the world.
The National Library of Poland acts as the central library of the state and one of the most important cultural institutions in Poland. It seeks to protect national heritage preserved in the form of handwritten, printed, electronic, recorded sound and audiovisual documents. The primary task of the National Library is to acquire, store and permanently archive the intellectual output of Poles.
Once the records from the National Library of Poland have been added to WorldCat, they are discoverable on the Web through popular search and partner sites, and through Worldcat.org.
WorldCat is a database of bibliographic information built continuously by OCLC and libraries around the world since 1971. Each record in the WorldCat database contains a bibliographic description of a single item or work and a list of institutions that hold the item. The institutions share these records, using them to create local catalogues, arrange interlibrary loans and conduct reference work. Libraries contribute records for items not found in WorldCat using the OCLC shared cataloging system.
There are currently about 1.4 million Polish records already in WorldCat. It is expected that this new agreement with the National Library of Poland will nearly double the number of Polish records in the database.
