Selected Library Catalogs from around the World

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Many items identified in these catalogs may be available to borrow through Interlibrary Loan. You may also be able to do research in person at a library by obtaining a letter of introduction from a Reference librarian.

The Major U.S. Database:

This database brings together materials listed in the online catalogs of nearly every U.S. library and many foreign libraries:

Worldcat (The OCLC Database)

The largest bibliographic database in the world, with over 41,000,000 items from approximately 8,500 libraries, primarily from with the U.S., but with significant representation from the United Kingdom and elsewhere.


Guides to National Libraries:

The European Library

Gateway to Europe’s national libraries, formerly called Gabriel. Allows the cross-searching of a number of European national libraries. Also includes links to the electronic resources and digital collections made available by each national library, along with information about each library’s collections and services.

Cybrary: National Library Catalogues Worldwide

A listing of the online catalogs of the various national libraries of the world, maintained at the University of Queensland.

Web Accessible National and Major Libraries

A simple listing of home pages for the various national libraries of the world, maintained by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).


Guide to Catalogs Worldwide:

LibWeb: Library Servers via WWW

Maintained by Berkeley Digital Library. An extensive system of links to libraries all over the world, though at times the link is to the home page of the institution rather than of the library of that institution.

Libdex: The Library Index

Another extensive listing of library web-based catalogs and home pages.


Some Major Foreign Catalogs:

British Library Integrated Catalogue

This web catalog, which premiered in 1997, allows users to search the “Reference Collections” (the main collection of the British Library in London), or the Document Supply Center in Boston Spa, which is rich in technical reports, journals, and proceedings.

CURL (Consortium of University Research Catalogues): COPAC

Catalog entries for a number of universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including Cambridge, Oxford, University of London, and Trinity College, Dublin. Can be searched by author, title, and subject (the last is actually a keyword search)

Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Catalogues en ligne

Offers access to books acquired by the Bibliothèque Nationale since 1970 and periodicals since 1960, along with the BN's manuscript catalogs. Choose OPALE-PLUS for books. .Older books are gradually being added to this catalog. The BN’s impressive fulltext collection (including many nineteenth-century periodicals) can be accessed through the website Gallica.

Le Catalogue collectif de France (CCFr)

Catalog for the holdings of several thousand French libraries.

Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog

Major site allows the cross searching of most online catalogs from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well many national libary catalogs from Europe and North America.

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Web Site

This site makes available not only the catalog of this German national library, but a series of links to other major German catalogs and regional catalogs under “Kataloge und Sammlungen” (or “Catalogues and Collections” in the English version).
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Repertorio degli OPAC italiani

Italian libraries are highly decentralized; this is a good guide to Italian library catalogs.

MAI - MetaOPAC Azalai Italiano

Allows cross-searching of multiple Italian library online catalogs.

Biblioteca Nacional de España. Catálogo

Online catalog of the national library of Spain.


refdept@northwestern.edu