Finding the DDS number for books

December 21, 2023 6:45 PM

OCLC will shortly shut off the service that lets us look up DDS numbers for free (and WorldCat requires a subscription to get them). The LoC has not noticeably improved in this regard over the years. We can probably tease them out of various online catalogs, but it would be great to have a single site. Suggestions would be very welcome.
posted by Tell Me No Lies to Education (4 answers total)

librarything.com ?
posted by kbuxton at 7:52 PM on December 21, 2023

While I'm always glad to see a plug for LibraryThing, as a long-time member of it I can tell you that it has the same problem. LibraryThing isn't itself a source of data: it will show a DDS number for a book only if someone has catalogued the book (which is basically what LT exists for) and given it a DDS number. Of course there are many librarians on LT, ansd some of them can no doubt assign DDS numbers to books that they enter, but you can't count on it.
posted by Logophiliac at 12:03 AM on December 22, 2023

Useless comment for your purposes, so apologies, but as a librarian I just wanted to register my gloom and disappointment at this news about OCLC. I don't even think it's anybody's fault—shit costs money—but OCLC's features make my job easier and more efficient, and our system can't afford more subscriptions.
posted by Rykey at 8:46 AM on December 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Not useless, as hearing from a real librarian that they're in the same boat gives me a good idea of where our itty-bitty volunteer and donation run library stands.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:18 AM on December 22, 2023