Library service provider OCLC, US, and the National Diet Library (NDL), Japan, have signed an agreement to jointly make over 5 million records from NDL more visible and accessible to scholars and researchers worldwide through WorldCat. The two organisations plan to cooperate for the benefit of libraries, library patrons and end users of information services. Kinokuniya Company Ltd., OCLC's distributor in Japan for 24 years, helped to facilitate the agreement.
NDL has been using WorldCat for current cataloging of Western languages materials since 2007. The new agreement provides for the contribution of the complete contents of the JAPAN/MARC database, the official national bibliography of Japan, to WorldCat on a regular basis. NDL and OCLC will work together to add the 5 million records to the WorldCat database. Once records are added to WorldCat, they are projected to be more visible and accessible to web users worldwide through WorldCat.org.
WorldCat is claimed to be the world's most comprehensive database of library materials. Updated in libraries and by library professionals around the world at a rate of nearly one new record every second, WorldCat comprises more than 180 million bibliographic records and holdings contributed by thousands of libraries.
Thirty-five national libraries are adding digital images, national files and bibliographies to WorldCat by both batchloading records and online contribution.
Established in 1948, NDL is the only depository library in Japan. It acquires all materials published in Japan, preserves them as national cultural heritage, and provides various types of bibliographic data.
