Worldcat Database Turns 40

Worldcat, the world's largest online collaborative library catalogue, turned 40 last Friday:

"WorldCat is a singular achievement. It represents the cooperative spirit at the heart of what makes libraries unique among cultural, educational and civic services. It is a shared resource that is built and maintained by thousands of members for the good of all (...)"

"The technology has obviously changed, but the vision has not: furthering access to the information in the world’s libraries. WorldCat may be one of the world’s oldest databases, but our libraries’ commitment to its health and improvement keeps it truly young at heart. And that heart, still beating strongly, is at the center of a unique, global bibliographic system."

At my place of work, Worldcat is one of the tools we use to identify locations from which to make interlibrary loan requests for our patrons.