What is WorldCat and Why Indie Authors Should Know About it!

Imagine you could visit a library anywhere in the world and browse its bookshelves. Or even better, imagine that your book was available to readers in that library and in nearly, I don't know, 16,000 other libraries worldwide. How is that possible? Well, if you've watched our other videos on library listings or you're wondering about WorldCat, then this video is definitely for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers, your fantastic self publishing services firm. Now, despite its name, WorldCat.org is not a website for an international feline. Hello. I bet that would be an epic website. It's actually the world's most comprehensive database of library collections. And when I say comprehensive, I mean comprehensive. Check out these numbers. WorldCat includes 15,637 libraries in 2,207 countries. Plus it contains over 512 million bibliographic records in 483 languages. And that represents over 3 billion physical and digital library assets. And the number of users accessing all of this? Over 100 million people. With WorldCat, you can search for books, videos, music and any other physical items you can check out of your library. Then think of it like a Google search specifically crafted for bookworms. The database also can help you discover new digital content like downloadable audiobooks. It doesn't just search your library either. It searches the itemized collection of many libraries at once to help you locate what you're looking for nearby. When you find a book or something else that you'd like to read, you may be able to join a waiting list, reserve it or check it out, or even have it shipped directly to you. And let's say you you're on the hunt for research for one of your books about a specific topic. WorldCat can help you find research articles or digital items that can be directly viewed or downloaded right from their database. WorldCat even has historical documents and photos such as local newspaper articles and digital versions of rare items that are unavailable to the public. Can you say research resource? Yeah, this is pretty cool. But do you want to know the coolest part? WorldCat also works like a library based kind of Goodreads. WorldCat.org users can add content like notes, table of contents, ratings and critiques to their listings. So you're not only discovering catalogs of libraries near and far, but you also see community contributed content for what you're searching for. WorldCat helps you find exactly where the book is available and if other readers think it's worth checking out in the first place, all in one Single search. Once you find what you need, you can add Items cataloged in WorldCat to personalized lists. And there's no limit, no limit to how many lists you can make for your profile. So go crazy with one or more of your loved genres, making a list for your kids or your favorite picture books, or categorize all the materials you need as sources for your manuscript in one place. You can group items in all kinds of ways owned by your library, other WorldCat libraries, or however you want to group them. And you can also share your list with friends, colleagues, and other WorldCat users. And using WorldCat can also simplify sourcing your references. WorldCat records include a link that says cite this item, and it will give you bibliographic citations in five different apa, Chicago, mla, Harvard, and Turabian. Or Turabian, depending on how you want to accent it. Just click the link, copy whichever style of citation you need and. And paste it right into your document, or generate citations for an entire list of items. Oh, man, those high school research papers would have been so much easier if I had this back then. Now you can see why WorldCat and all of its awesome features can benefit you and your book. A record of your book has the potential to connect to tens of thousands of libraries and millions of WorldCat users throughout the world. So now saying that, I know you're wondering, how do I get my book into this beautiful resource to reach all those readers? Well, to add your book to WorldCat, you're going to have to have an OCLC member institution that carries a copy of your book in their catalog. They have to do it. And that's why I said in a different video, once your book is available in a library, check WorldCat and confirm the listing is accurate. So, bottom line, your first step in getting your book listed in WorldCat is to get some library listings of your book. If you're unsure whether or not your local library is a member, then there's a registry search right on the WorldCat's website where you can check. Once the library purchases your book, they'll be able to catalog it into their database, create a record for it, and then upload your record right to WorldCat for users to discover. So chances are, if you find your book in WorldCat, it's in at least one library. But if it's not there, well, you're gonna need your library to carry your book in the first place. And I got you covered there with this video because it's all about getting your book into the local library. Now before you click that, feel free to smash that thumbs up button. Enjoy that. I have you covered in all the ways and make sure you subscribe to the channel so we can be friends for a long time. Now, if your book is listed there, then this is the latest and greatest from the channel and you really should watch it. Either way, I can't wait to see you there.