The Resource Sharing Program for Network Discovery (RESPOND) Program is a joint effort on the part of AMICAL and OCLC to create new opportunities for resource discovery by library users, at AMICAL institutions and worldwide.
Through RESPOND, AMICAL institutions become members of the OCLC cooperative and are able to benefit from the cooperative’s services and opportunities for professional contact and development.
Benefits of participation
Enhanced discoverability of your library collection
By contributing your library’s records to the WorldCat database, you make your collection more visible to both local users and to researchers worldwide. In addition to using your own local OPAC, your users can find your library’s materials via:
- The highly functional FirstSearch and WorldCat Discovery interfaces
- WorldCat.org, a user-friendly public interface to WorldCat on the Web. In their WorldCat.org search results, users scroll down for a list of WorldCat-participating libraries nearby that own the item. Your library’s listing shows its distance from the user’s location.
- Google, Bing and other partner sites: WorldCat data is made available to major web search engines and other mutual linking and traffic sharing partner sites, which means that your users can be directed to your library’s resources when searching the web.
Local catalog creation or enhancement
Local catalog records can be improved – individually, in subsets, or for the entire catalog – by matching and replacing with WorldCat records, while retaining fields with locally specific data. When ordering a batch-cataloging job, this is offered as an option to receive back the matching WorldCat records for ingestion into your local ILS; however, this service will involve an extra charge. Batchloading to set holdings in WorldCat and to receive the library’s record returned with the OCLC control number embedded is part of a standard subscription; OCLC will charge an additional fee for any other services associated with the return of records.
Membership
OCLC is guided by representatives from member institutions that use our services and as part of the RESPOND program, you are an OCLC member.
The benefits of being an OCLC member are:
- Taking advantage of cost savings, improved efficiencies, and new technologies that maximize the power of the cooperative, cloud-based services, and shared data
- Participating and benefitting from original research and taking advantage of OCLC’s Developer Network and APIs
- Benefitting from the shared knowledge of your peers in the Community Center and the training available in WebJunction
- Getting the chance to take part in thought leadership discussions, online webinars, and networking
To find out more about the OCLC network, take a look at this video (2 minutes)
For more information about OCLC membership, please reach out to Rosanna Ramacciotti or your EMEA Regional Council representative, Evi Tramantza.