Mapping WorldCat’s Digital Landscape

Authors

  • Brian F. Lavoie
  • Lynn Silipigni Connaway
  • Edward T. O’Neill

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.51n2.106

Abstract

Digital materials are reshaping library collections and, by extension, traditional library practice for collecting, organizing, and preserving information. This paper uses OCLC’s WorldCat bibliographic database as a data source for examining questions relating to digital materials in library collections, including criteria for identifying digital materials algorithmically in MARC21 records; the quantity, types, characteristics, and holdings patterns of digital materials cataloged in WorldCat; and trends in WorldCat cataloging activity for digital materials over time. Issues pertaining to cataloging practice for digital materials and perspectives on digital holdings at the work level also are discussed. Analysis of the aggregate collection represented by the combined digital holdings in WorldCat affords a high-level perspective on historical patterns, suggests future trends, and supplies useful intelligence with which to inform decision making in a variety of areas.

References

Brian Lavoie, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Lorcan Dempsey, '“Anatomy of Aggregate Collections: The Example of Google Print for Libraries,”' D-Lib Magazine 11 no. 9 (2005): (accessed May 24, 2006)www.dlib.org/dlib/september05/lavoie/09lavoie.htmlnRoger C. Schonfeld, Brian F. Lavoie, '“Books without Boundaries: A Brief Tour of the System-wide Print Book Collection,”' Journal of Electronic Publishing 9 no. 2 (2006): (accessed Feb. 26, 2007)www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;cc=jep;q1=Summer%202006;op2=and;op3=and;rgn=main;rgn1=citation;rgn2=title;rgn3=title;view=text;idno=3336451.0009.208;hi=0n MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data: Update No. 4 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service Oct. 2003)nAmy K. Weiss, '“Proliferating Guidelines: A History and Analysis of the Cataloging of Electronic Resources,”' Library Resources & Technical Services 47 no. 4 (2003): 173n Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (Ottawa: Canadian Library Assn. 1978) London: Library Assn. Publishing; Chicago: ALA,nWeiss, “Proliferating Guidelines.”n Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: Final Report (Munich: K.G. Saur 1998): 16- (accessed May 24, 2006)n () OCLC, FRBR Work Set Algorithm. n

Downloads

Published

2011-04-29

Issue

Vol. 51 No. 2 (2007): April

Section

Articles

License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after it has been accepted for publication. Sharing can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.