OCLC and Wikipedia Library link citations to millions of library materials

Wikipedia editors can now add citations that link to library resources in WorldCat.


WorldCat is the world’s most comprehensive database of information about library collections. 

References help Wikipedia editors verify the facts included in articles and link readers to additional resources and further information.  Wikimedia's cite tool allows users to generate a full citation from a single identifier.  The integration of OCLC's WorldCat Search API into the cite tool helps editors automatically generate and add citations that link back to resources represented in WorldCat.

In 2016, OCLC was a winner of the Knight News Challenge for a project to promote collaboration between public libraries and Wikipedia. And in March 2017, OCLC hired a Wikipedian-in-Residence, a position funded by a project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, to facilitate the Wikipedia + Libraries: Better Together project.