Family Tree
Imagine what a family historian could do with a tool that could search 1.3 billion items in more than 10,000 libraries worldwide! You could find out whether a manuscript exists on your family name, whether a book exists about your family’s town of origin, and whether a library near you has the item.

Now instead of imagining, you can see for yourself. Instead of wondering what you could do with that tool, you can do it. That tool exists. It is called Open WorldCat. Thanks to the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) in Dublin, Ohio, it has now been made publicly available at www.worldcat.org . The “cat,” of course, is not of the feline variety; it is a catalog, the new variety of online public access catalog that has replaced the traditional card catalog that my generation is familiar with.

The simple search is for a title, a subject, or a person. More advanced searches are possible by keyword, title, author, ISBN, OCLC number, language, format, and publication date. The formats available include much more than books; they include archival material, articles, books, computer files, Internet resources (such as database subscriptions), maps, musical scores, serial publications (journals or periodicals), sound recordings (records, tapes, CDs, DVDs), and visual material (videos, CDs, DVDs).