Wednesday, November 9, 2016

The National Central Library of Rome adds about 2 million records into WorldCat




The National Central Library of Rome (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma) has loaded nearly 2 million records into WorldCat, a comprehensive database of information about library collections, to increase visibility of these Italian collections around the world.

The National Central Library of Rome holds a large number of special collections and print materials dating back to the 15th century with more than 7,000,000 printed volumes, 1,342,154 brochures, 25,000 cinquecentine (16th century books), 20,000 maps, 10,000 drawings, 8,000 manuscripts and 2,000 incunabula. Following the initial load of 2 million records, the National Central Library of Rome will continue to add records to WorldCat.

The mission of the National central Library of Rome is to capture, collect and describe the national published record of Italy and the most important foreign publications, particularly those that relate to Italy. This work is vital in making the Italian published record visible to its citizens and around the world. By uploading the records to Worldcat, the National Central Library of Rome will make them discoverable to international users through the Web.

Libraries cooperatively contribute, enhance and share bibliographic data through WorldCat, connecting people to cultural and scholarly resources in libraries worldwide. Each record in the WorldCat database contains a bibliographic description of a single title or work and a list of institutions that hold the item. Institutions share these records, using them to create local catalogues, arrange interlibrary loans and conduct reference work. Libraries contribute records for titles not found in WorldCat using OCLC shared cataloguing systems.

When libraries share their data through WorldCat, they support a variety of network services, such as global resource sharing, collection evaluation and collection management.

WorldCat gives people the ability to view library collections from anywhere in the world, giving them access to a rich assortment of information much deeper than what can be found through a basic internet search. There are 491 languages and dialects represented in WorldCat, and 62 percent of records are in languages other than English.

Since its launch in 1971, 380 million records have been added to WorldCat, spanning more than 5,000 years of recorded knowledge. This unique collection of information encompasses records in a variety of formats—books, e-books, DVDs, digital resources, serials, sound recordings, musical scores, maps, visual materials, mixed materials, computer files and more.


Regards

Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co

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