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WorldCat Collection Analysis

OCLC's WorldCat Collection Analysis service is available to help you quickly analyze your individual and group library collections. Libraries with subscriptions to WorldCat on FirstSearch can compare their collections with thousands of peer institutions that have their holdings in WorldCat. Using the service ibrary staff can analyze their collections anytime, without extensive staff, time or financial resources.

Benefits to Libraries

The service provides many benefits to libraries, including:

  • Comparison with peer libraries—easily identify strengths, gaps and overlaps in your collection
  • Multiple views of the collection—choose from many parameters, including subject, publication date, language, format and audience level, to create views to meet your needs
  • Participate in consortia activities—groups can analyze member collections for more effective collaborative collection development
  • Support library processes—analysis results facilitate acquiring, weeding, canceling and preserving processes
  • Demonstrate fiscal responsibility—reports can be used to prove financial need and responsible stewardship to administrators and funding bodies

Features

Features include:

  • The ability to compare your collection with thousands of institutions that have their holdings in WorldCat
  • Any collection can be analyzed regardless of the type of materials, classification scheme, library, or the integrated library system used
  • The ability to evaluate borrowing and lending information
  • The ability to evaulate how your collection is being used with circulation analysis
  • Browser interface that's easy to use from within the staff view of FirstSearch
  • Affordable annual subscription, for predictable pricing
  • Reports can be easily exported to other programs like Microsoft Excel
  • Individual institution subscriptions or group subscriptions are available

Requirements

  • Current generation Web browser
  • Subscription to the WorldCat database on FirstSearch

Product Demo

There is a ten-minute, self-guided demo available that provides you with information on:

  • Comparing your collection to all WorldCat libraries
  • Analysis by subject, language, date, format and audience
  • Comparing your library with one other institution (with permission)
  • Gap and overlap analysis of holdings, including electronic materials
  • Comparison against multiple, custom-defined peer groups

You can also register to view a live demonstration of WorldCat Collection Analysis.

For more information, visit the OCLC Web site or contact the MINITEX BATS unit for pricing.