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Leveraging WorldCat: Data Mining the World's Largest Library Database

This article explores the innovative use of data mining techniques on WorldCat, the largest library database globally, with over 290 million records. Authored by Roy Tennant from OCLC Research, it discusses the algorithmic construction of authority records via WorldCat and VIAF, highlighting language coverage and the importance of collaboration in normalizing data. Key takeaways include the shift from cataloging to catalog linking and the essential need for sophisticated processing in extracting useful data from MARC records for broader applications.

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Leveraging WorldCat: Data Mining the World's Largest Library Database

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  1. LeveragingWorldCat Data Mining the LargestLibrary Database in the World Roy Tennant OCLC Research

  2. Algorithmically constructed from WorldCat records Worldcat.org/identities/

  3. A Union database of authority records Viaf.org

  4. The Responsible Party Thom Hickey Chief Scientist OCLC Research

  5. 290+ millionrecords

  6. 60.2% 30 June 2012 Language Coverage 274 million 36.5 million 25.5 million 11.3 million 4.7 million 4.3 million 3.6 million 3.5 million • Total German French Spanish Italian Dutch Russian Latin

  7. Worldcat.org/identities/

  8. (Diana Gabaldon) (J.K. Rowling) (Galileo)

  9. Viaf.org

  10. VIAF Participants

  11. “Super” Authority File

  12. Our Cataloging Future “Moving from cataloging to catalinking” Eric Miller, Zepheira

  13. Some Lessons • Widespread collaboration is essential • Normalizing the data is essential • Normalizing the data is complicated • Everything is interrelated: • You can’t bring names together if titles don’t match • You can’t bring titles together if names don’t match • Batch mode processing still rules (but we’re getting better and faster at it)

  14. Conclusions • Data mining isn’t just useful, it’s essential • Extracting data from MARC that is useful in other contexts is possible, but will require sophisticated processing • Only very large organizations (e.g., OCLC, national libraries) have the data and resources to do this work • Thankfully, we are doing it, but there is much more to be done

  15. Roy Tennant tennantr@oclc.org @rtennant roytennant.com

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