Global library cooperative Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), US, and Internet search services provider Google, Inc., US, have signed an agreement to exchange data that will facilitate the discovery of library collections through Google search services.
Under the deal, OCLC member libraries participating in the Google Book Search programme, which makes the full text of more than 1 million books searchable, may share their WorldCat-derived MARC records with Google. This is seen to better facilitate discovery of library collections via Google search. The new agreement enables OCLC to create MARC records describing the Google digitised books from OCLC member libraries and to link to them. These linking arrangements should help drive more traffic to libraries, both online and in person.
Google will link from Google Book Search to WorldCat.org, which will drive traffic to library OPACs and other library services. The search engine will share data and links to digitised books with OCLC, which will make it possible for OCLC to represent the digitised collections of OCLC member libraries in WorldCat. WorldCat metadata will be made available to Google directly from OCLC or through member libraries participating in the Google Book Search programme.
The new agreement between OCLC and Google is the latest in several partnerships between the two designed to increase the visibility of libraries on the web and deliver information to users at the point of need. OCLC will be working with other organisations to include digitised content in WorldCat in the months to come.
