If you need access to Collection Manager (the Metadata tab in the WorldShare interface), follow the steps to Create a Collection Manager account. The instructions will tell you to complete a Request WorldShare Collection Manager form.
An OCLC Cataloging and Metadata Subscription is required for record delivery from the collections listed below. If your library does not have a subscription, see Options for libraries without a cataloging subscription.
If your institution has manually selected a collection in full, OCLC will not overwrite your selections. Before the initial load of holdings from your provider, we recommend that you verify that the collection(s) as listed below have not been manually selected for this provider.
Notes:
Before the initial load of your collections, please:
Note: Be sure your Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) item selection profile matches what your library wishes to receive moving forward.
The feed request status will update to Pending as it is waiting for its initial provider update.
It can take up to one month before your government document collections are active and viewable in the WorldShare interface
There are many collections in the global WorldCat knowledge base. Use the collection information to help you find the relevant collections. When you search in Collection Manager, try entering a root word and an asterisk (*) as a truncation operator. For example: U.S. Government*
The below collections are available for an Automatic Holdings Feed:
| Collection name(s) | Collection ID(s) | Demand-driven acquisition collections? | Frequency provider sends OCLC data | Notes about the collection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Government Documents - Electronic | govdocs.govdocse | No | Monthly | Please verify that your collections have not been manually selected before you proceed to request collection loading. |
| U.S. Government Documents - Non-electronic | govdocs.govdocsp | No | Monthly | Please verify that your collections have not been manually selected before you proceed to request collection loading. |
Caution: Once your collection has loaded, do not add or update any of the titles within the collection. Over time, item numbers will be deselected from your item selection profile. When this happens, your holdings will not be removed from corresponding records in OCLC. If you remove a small number of item selections from the FDLP, you may want to deselect the corresponding titles manually from your GPO collections. For a large number of removals, it may be a better option to reset the entire collection so that you only receive records associated with your current or updated item selection profile. To do that, please contact OCLC Support to coordinate the process. If there are other issues with the titles selected or missing from your collection, please contact OCLC Support with examples.
OCLC has divided your titles into two collections: Electronic titles and non-electronic titles. This division allows you to make choices in your settings and customizations per format. For example, you can choose to have MARC records for your electronic collection and for your non-electronic titles output in unique, separate files. Likewise, you could add unique public notes for display in WorldCat Discovery in each collection.
These collections are updated monthly by harvesting all records that GPO has cataloged in WorldCat. This harvest is typically done on the last Friday of each month, with the collections being updated shortly afterwards. To be eligible to be included in either GPO collection, the records must first have a valid 074:a field. Beyond that, to be included in the U.S. Government Documents – Electronic collection, a WorldCat record must have a purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/ or purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/ URL in the 856 field, and has to be an electronic format type, such as an eBook, Online Map, Online Video, Website, or eJournal. To be included in the U.S. Government Documents – Non-electronic collection, a record simply needs to be in a print format, such as a Print Book, Journal, Photograph, etc.
We recommend that you wait until your collection is available before you proceed so that all of the settings will be available in Collection Manager.
The amount of time it takes for your titles to be available depends on the timing of your request, how often your provider sends data, when OCLC loads the data, and the place of your institution's data in a queue. The time for the initial loading process varies from about one week to one month.
Caution: Once you have requested to have your collections selected automatically, do not add or deselect any of the titles within the collection. If there is an issue with the titles selected or missing from your collection, please contact OCLC Support with examples.
On the Collection Manager Home screen, the Automatic holdings feeds tab shows all the available holdings feeds. Automatic holdings feeds that have been processed and are ongoing have the status of Active. For more information about editing, pausing, or removing an automatic holdings feed, see About Automatic Holdings Feeds.
Automatic Holdings Feeds status descriptions:
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Pending | The feed request has been submitted and is waiting for its initial provider update. |
| Manual only | The feed is set to be updated manually only and does not receive provider updates. This setting can be changed at the Institution level. |
| Paused | The feed has been paused and is not receiving provider updates. Users can resume the feed using the Actions menu in the Automatic Holdings Feed view on the Collection Manager home page. |
| Active | The feed is functioning normally and receiving updates. |
| Updating | The feed is currently processing an update. This status typically appears briefly during the update process. |
Refer to Collection Manager Activity History for more information.
OCLC Symbol
Use the OCLC Symbol setting to verify that your institution's OCLC symbol is selected. Collection Manager uses the symbol displayed here to maintain WorldCat holdings and to output records.
Proxy and Authentication
Collection Manager helps you manage patron access to materials by directing off-campus patrons through your proxy server. Collection Manager will prepend your proxy information to catalog links. Both on-campus and off-campus patrons will be given proxy links. Consult the documentation for your proxy server to determine how to configure your proxy settings to ignore on-campus patrons so they do not have to sign in.
You can override proxy information for a single collection within a collection's collection-level settings. See Collection-level settings in knowledge base collections.
Caution: Do not include a space after the Base URL.
(Optional) Enter your Username and Password. Providing username and password information is used by OCLC for de-bugging purposes only.
Determine whether to allow for proxy use in open access collections. Once this setting is set to Yes, open access collections will allow users to enable proxy settings at the collection level. This gives libraries the option to surface open access content with proxy information in mixed collections.
The default setting is No.
Note: It is possible to update the collection-level proxy settings before enabling this setting. Once set to Yes, the settings will be recognized and applied. The proxy settings will be visible, but not applied if the setting is No. This can be verified in the Sample Title Link.
(Optional) Select to Temporarily disable for WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat.org.
Reports (WorldCat holdings reports and/or Records reports)
If you enable reports in Institution Settings > Reports, reports will be available via email around the time when files of records have been output and/or after there are changes to your holdings in WorldCat. When your first report is available, you will get an email from Usage_Statistics@oclc.org with the subject field: "The report [name of report] you requested for [YYYYMMDD]."
You will not receive an email on days when there is no activity. Reports are also available in the OCLC Usage Statistics Portal and they are identical to the reports that come by email. See how to access reports in the OCLC Usage Statistics Portal.
To receive emailed reports:
There is not a way to select only certain reports per email. The email address(es) entered will receive all selected reports.
Many libraries that have collections that output records on an ongoing basis select the Updated Records report. The report will notify you of critical changes like OCLC number merges and the reason you received an updated record even if you have not enabled WorldCat updates.
Collection Manager will output new, updated, and deleted records based on your current FDLP item selection profile. To enable your institution for MARC record delivery:
You have the option to have your file of records delivered in a separate file from other collections.
Download your files of records from the WorldShare interface, Metadata tab.
Find information to Understand emailed reports and Understand record processing.
Note: Refer to your ILS for information about uploading files into your local system.
Collection Manager provides the convenience of automatically maintaining your holdings in WorldCat as titles are added, deleted or updated in your collections.
Note: Holdings are set the day after the automatic holdings feed updates. Depending on the Delivery Frequency and Record Output settings under Record Delivery, MARC records may be delivered as new or update records.
Display full-text links, elevate links from a specific provider, and more.
The GPO automatic holdings feed and knowledge base collections are included at no additional cost for institutions with an OCLC Cataloging and Metadata Subscription.
The Cataloging Record Distribution Program (CRDP) ended on December 31, 2024. The last record set made available for the CRDP was sent out in December 2024 and included records cataloged in November 2024.
U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has always cataloged in WorldCat, so the core of the records will be the same. MARCIVE may have applied record customizations for you, but these can also be set up in Collection Manager. Refer to Customize records (Institution Settings) and Collection-level settings
Additionally, be aware that FDLP item numbers are regularly being updated to reflect changes in Federal agency publishing. It's also possible that staff at your library changed item number selections at various times too. Either would have resulted in creation of a different set of records than those used in this service.
Any library can select all titles in the GPO knowledge base collections, or select a subset of titles.
Only federal depository libraries can use automatic holdings feeds to select titles matching their FDLP item selection profiles.
OCLC does not offer a "traditional" authority control service. However, WorldCat Updates can serve the same purpose by automatically delivering records to you when profiled fields are updated with controlled headings. Refer to WorldCat Updates.
The first record delivery from OCLC will contain all new records.
Consult your system's record import settings for options. Your system could check for matches on OCLC number or GPO item number.
Consider also deleting previous government document records before loading new records.
OCLC number changes are typically a result of two WorldCat records being merged into one another.
If you have enabled MARC delivery, merged records held by your library are delivered in merges files, regardless of whether you have enabled WorldCat Updates.
Refer to Records in Merges files.
Federal depository libraries can use automatic holdings feeds to select titles matching their FDLP item selection profiles. You do not have to set up the automatic holdings feed, but it can be convenient to have OCLC automatically select titles based on your FDLP item selection profile.
To set up the automatic holdings feed, refer to Request collection loading.
To manually select and deselect titles, refer to Modify a collection to select your subset of titles.
No. GovDocs is the only automatic holdings feed where titles are not deselected. If you remove item numbers from your FDLP profile, those titles won't be deselected, and a delete file will not be generated.
Contact OCLC Support for assistance.
Note: Do not save this option.
You may be able to adjust your FDLP item selection profile to include only electronic or non-electronic government document holdings. If you wish to adjust your item selection profile, contact the GPO.
However, if your FDLP item selection profile includes both electronic and non-electronic, we cannot remove the automatic feed for one collection; it is all or none. You can choose whether or not to receive MARC records and/or set WorldCat holdings at the collection-level. For example, if you do not want to receive MARC records or set WorldCat holdings on titles in the non-electronic collection, disable those settings in that collection.
The above option should address most concerns. However, if you do not want titles to be selected in one of the collections, there is an additional workaround. As long as you keep at least one title selected within the undesired collection and set the collection-level Data Sources setting to Manual Upload Only, the holdings feed will be blocked from populating that collection. Depending on your needs, you may also want to disable Maintain WorldCat Holdings for the undesired collection.
If you were to completely deselect one collection or the other, the holdings feed would not be blocked, and the titles would be automatically selected with the next provider load. You must keep at least one title selected and choose the Manual Upload Only setting.
Contact OCLC Support if you encounter problems making the change or if you have questions about the autofeed.
Find additional information: