Geographical representation of library collections in WorldCat: A prototype

Abstract

In today's world, people can be inundated by an overwhelming amount of information. Library and information science professionals attempt to provide information systems that are capable of retrieving precise and accurate information. One method for the organization and retrieval of geographically‐based information is to develop a system to visually represent the data. A prototype for an interactive map, the OCLC World Map, was developed to provide a visual tool for the management and representation of geographically‐based library collections and library data. These data are used to provide information for decision‐making in regard to remote storage, collection management and cooperative collection development, preservation, and digitization. The collection data for the map were generated from WorldCat, the OCLC Online Computer Library Center bibliographic database. WorldCat contains approximately 55 million records, and not only serves as an aggregator of bibliographic data, but also identifies a billion holding locations by type of library for library resources. Additional data, gathered from more than thirty other sources, such as library expenditures and number of libraries, are represented on the OCLC WorldMap.