Earlier this year, OCLC enriched more than 400 million WorldCat records with Worldcat Entities uniform resource identifiers (URIs). We are excited to share the extension of this initiative to routinely enhance WorldCat record quality through the automated addition of WorldCat Entities URIs to WorldCat records.

Here's how it works:

During our ongoing daily process that controls headings in WorldCat bibliographic records to link headings to authority records, this new process automatically inserts the relevant $1 URI link or updates the existing link in $1 (if needed), thus keeping records current and enriched with the latest WorldCat Entities URIs.

This update also means that if you control candidate headings when cataloging with WorldShare Record Manager, URIs will be automatically added, keeping WorldCat cataloging data enriched, connected, and linked daily. Candidate headings include those in the following fields: 100, 700 (name only), and FAST headings tagged 600, 647, 651.

The enriched data is included in WorldCat records exported using OCLC cataloging applications, and libraries can also receive enriched records by enabling the WorldCat Updates feature "Receive updates when $1 is modified" in WorldShare Collection Manager.

Enriching WorldCat MARC records with WorldCat Entities URIs establishes a bridge between MARC data and linked data, providing more opportunities for connecting data across local systems and workflows and for using linked data functionality in local discovery systems. Linked data builds rich connections across library resources, making those resources more discoverable, providing opportunities to improve workflows, and supporting easier integration of valuable library data into other systems and services.

Libraries and their partners interested in building new linked data applications and services can reference these URIs by exploring more than 150 million WorldCat Entities at entities.oclc.org. Join us in transforming the future of library cataloging and stay ahead with linked data for libraries.