I'd like to announce and invite you to try xOCLCnum, the latest in the
xIdentifier family of Web services from OCLC.

Just as xISBN allows you to find all related editions of a book by
entering its ISBN, xOCLCnum does the same thing using OCLC number.

xOCLCnum is queried using a simple URL format, and returns an XML
response with both related OCLCnums and related ISBNs (if any).  It is
designed to be easily built in to your library application, so you can
expand queries, find all related editions, or do whatever creative thing
you want to do.

Background:
ISBNs have been assigned since 1970, to most but not all books
published.

OCLC numbers are assigned whenever a record is added to WorldCat, OCLC's
global union catalog. These records cover a large portion of all books,
old and new, held by any library in North America and, increasingly
other regions worldwide (most recently, National Library of China: see
http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/20085.htm).

So the coverage range of OCLC numbers is, not surprisingly, far greater
than that of ISBNs: in WorldCat, for example, around 100 million
OCLCnums compared to about 20 million ISBNs.

More Information on xOCLCnum:
http://xisbn.worldcat.org/xisbnadmin/xoclcnum/index.htm
xOCLCnum API description:
http://xisbn.worldcat.org/xisbnadmin/xoclcnum/api.htm

We hope you will find this service useful, and are interested to hear if
you use it or are considering using it.
Also, let me know if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions on
xIdentifier services generally.

thanks to Xiaoming Liu, lead developer, for design and implementation of
xOCLCnum.
Tim

---
Tim McCormick
Product Manager, OCLC Online Computer Library Center
Email: mccormit (at) oclc.org
2 Broad St., Suite 208, Bloomfield, New Jersey 07003 USA
Phone: +1.973.868.5694  |  Skype:  tim_mccormick
http://www.oclc.org/