• Collections & Technical Services
• Sept. 07
• Issue: 215

OCLC WorldCat Collection Analysis: Summer Enhancements & Updated Data

Over the summer, several enhancements were added to OCLC’s WorldCat Collection Analysis Service.

WorldCat Collection Analysis Individual subscribers, (and as of August 5th, group subscribers too!) have the option of applying elements of the FRBR algorithm to their WorldCat comparisons via the FirstSearch Administrative Module. Applying elements of FRBR will group various editions and formats of the same title together. Requesting a FRBR-applied WorldCat Comparison will not overwrite your existing, non-FRBR applied comparison. It will appear as an additional analysis.

In addition to the FRBR results view, other exciting enhancements include:

• Increase in the number of institutions available in peer comparisons from five to 10 for individual subscribers.
• Ability to search the Conspectus by LC, Dewey, or NLM Call Number, which now allows you to enter a call number of interest and thereby immediately “scope” your analysis view to the most granular level of the Conspectus containing that call number.
• Batch export limits increased from 500 to 2500 records at a time.

OCLC has also completed the quarterly refresh of data in WorldCat Collection Analysis, replacing the data from last quarter with the most current data from WorldCat. Along with current data, other improvements include:

• Government Documents – all items in OCLC’s Government Documents division have been broken out by publishing agency for more granular analysis.
• NLM records consolidated – all master records in WorldCat with a National Library of Medicine call number have been classified using the record’s NLM call number. This will be especially valuable for institutions accustomed to classifying their respective collections with NLM. Now the sequence of choosing a call number from the master record to use in mapping an item is:
  1. NLM
  2. LC
  3. Dewey

For more information about World Cat Collection Analysis, contact Lauren Pinsley (pinsleyl@nylink.org) or Jennifer Hawkes (hawkesj@nylink.org) at Nylink. You may also wish to visit http://www.oclc.org/collectionanalysis.

Collections & Technical Services Contact Information

Please contact Lauren Pinsley (pinsleyl@nylink.org), Lynne Graziadei (graziadeil@nylink.org) or Mary Edgerton (edgertonm@nylink.org) at Nylink with any questions. They are available via email or phone (518-443-5444/800-342-3353).