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OCLC Services
Introduction
Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 60,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials.
Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services 
to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it.
OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat —the OCLC Online Union Catalog.
Membership in OCLC is a unique cooperative venture, giving your library access to a wide range of services and databases, including WorldCat. Together OCLC member libraries make up the world's largest consortium.
Services
- CatExpress - OCLC CatExpress enables you to put materials on the shelves for your users faster than ever before. Even if you have little or no cataloging experience, you'll be amazed at how simple it is to use CatExpress with minimal training.
- Connexion - Connexion is OCLC's flagship cataloging service, a powerful, flexible suite of tools with built-in access to WorldCat, the world's largest bibliographic database.
- Worldcat Resource Sharing - FirstSearch is an online Interlibrary Loan service that gives library professionals and end users the ability to request and manage Interlibrary Loans. With ILL options available in FirstSearch, library staff can create custom borrowing strings and find state holdings in a single search.
- My Montana Library Group Catalog - a Montana specific group catalog. Group catalogs leverage the investment your libraries have made with their cataloging efforts. For libraries not currently cataloging with OCLC, we provide convenient batchloading of records into the group catalog.
- WorldCat - A global library network that thousands of institutions rely upon because they have built it together over 30 years. Librarians and other information professionals continuously enrich and use this one-of-a-kind resource guided by the values of community, efficiency and trust, the same principles that motivated the creation of libraries themselves. These institutions join a larger community of libraries knowing it lets them better serve the people in their own local communities.
- Worldcat.org - Worldcat.org is a web portal for the Worldcat database, making your library collection discoverable anywhere on the Web. If your holding is in the Worldcat database, it is now discoverable on the Web.
- Worldcat Local Quick Start - WorldCat Local "quick start" provides a single search result that delivers your library's resources and those of the world's libraries. It is now included in a subscription to WorldCat on FirstSearch at no additional charge.
State of Montana Contracted OCLC Services
The Montana State Library has renewed, on behalf of Montana libraries, a three-year contract (FY12-FY14) with OCLC , Online Computer Library Center, Inc. This contract is for statewide, discounted, fixed price access to OCLC cataloging and interlibrary loan services, as well as reference access to the OCLC WorldCat database. FY2012 enrollment fees for all Montana enrolled libraries will again be substantially reduced due to the repurposing of Interlibrary Loan monies and FY10 and FY11 federal LSTA monies assigned to the total cost of our statewide OCLC Group Services.
Contract features:
- Unlimited cataloging
- Unlimited interlibrary loans
- Access to WorldCat
- Full access to the My Montana Library Group Catalog, which has over 60 million books and over a billion titles worldwide. See OCLC's Web site for information about group services or read this description (doc) by Sarah McHugh.
This year's contract is effective July 1, 2011 and runs through June 30, 2012. All Montana libraries are eligible and encouraged to participate. You must re-enroll and pay the enrollment fee each year to continue to receive cataloging and ILL services.
Please take the time to read the OCLC Group Services Terms and Conditions (pdf) for the State of Montana.
