OCLC is a non-profit membership organization that provides a common computerized platform/system for creating and maintaining a regularly updated database of bibliographic records, holdings, and other information supplied by OCLC general members and other parties. Hennepin County Library (HCL) heavily utilizes these bibliographic records to describe, enhance and provide information on much of its collection materials.  

HCL has utilized OCLC for more than 20 years and the OCLC WorldCat database is the largest database of bibliographic and authority records in the world. The bibliographic record count offered through OCLC is closing in on 1,350,000,000. This includes books, eBooks, all forms of media and journal articles.   

Using OCLC allows HCL patrons to have access to collections across the state of Minnesota as well as the US and internationally. It also allows us to share our expertise as well as others’ across the world as we seek to describe our collections. HCL utilizes bibliographic records created all around the world for our foreign language materials collection as well as records created for self-published and small publisher titles that are added locally to the OCLC database by Anoka County Library, Dakota County Library and Saint Paul Public Library.

HCL's ability to access and utilize OCLC is an indispensable part of our library services to residents and helps to make all the wonderful items in our collection come alive.