Monumental back-end framework and system improvements were made as part of the project. These are only briefly outlined below. The changes greatly enhance the WorldCat knowledge base. They allowed us to redesign features in WorldShare Collection Manager such as the enhancements and workflow updates you see in the interface.
The high-level goals for the re-architecture project are as follows:
Stability. Create a knowledge base robust enough to meet libraries’ future needs.
Capacity. Create a knowledge base that can grow exponentially over time, not just in volume but in scope.
Speed. Create a knowledge base that makes libraries’ e-content available to them as quickly as possible.
Transparency. Dynamically display for customers what gets loaded and when.
To satisfy the project goals, extensive enhancements were made to the back-end framework and processes. We've implemented new indexing and database solutions that improve speed and capacity. OCLC's e-resource platform is modern, scalable, and positioned for the future.
The re-architecture project includes a complete redesign of the data ingest process that OCLC uses to screen, validate, and normalize provider data. Data ingest now includes:
These changes result in better data and faster processing of data updates for libraries, as well as the ability to scale. Redesigned internal tools allow us to correct data more quickly.