Search Wayfinder on the WorldCat.org platform (http://wayfinder.worldcat.org)
What is it?
The Wayfinder catalog provides a single search for locating materials owned by the major Washington libraries, with the eventual goal of including all of Washington’s libraries.
The Wayfinder catalog contains information on the collections of over 250 Washington public, academic, government, law, medical, corporate, special and tribal libraries. Combined, these libraries hold over 17.8 million items in all formats: books, periodicals (magazines, newspapers and journals, etc.), movies, CDs and DVDs, digital objects (such as electronic documents, subscription research databases, or historical items that have been scanned and made available on the Web), books in audio and large print formats, and much more.
Information for Libraries and Library Staff
Who benefits?
- The people of Washington—individuals who will discover millions of items owned by Washington libraries
- Washington libraries and their staffs—who will be better equipped to serve their communities
More about Who
When did it happen?
The Wayfinder catalog was launched on the OCLC FirstSearch platform on April 14, 2008. Wayfinder was launched on the WorldCat.org platform on April 6, 2009.
Where can it be accessed?
On any computer desktop anywhere in Washington and around the world, via the Internet, and directly from this webpage by visiting wayfinder.worldcat.org.
Why is this important?
Increasingly, individuals in Washington (like people everywhere) are finding their information through the Internet. Wayfinder is now available through the freely available WorldCat.org web site. Providing Wayfinder through the web is part of a larger movement among libraries to meet the needs of individuals where they are – whether they are in a library or accessing library information through the Internet from their homes or offices.
This project links people who use Google, Yahoo and similar search engines back to their local libraries, where trustworthy, reliable information, as well as many valuable recreational resources are freely available. To help make this happen, OCLC provides WorldCat records, including those found in Wayfinder, to the search engines for inclusion in their indexes.
Contact Information
For more information on Wayfinder, follow one of the links in the upper right corner of this page, or contact
Will Stuivenga, Wayfinder Project Manager
Washington State Library:
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 360.704.5217
Toll free 866.538.4996