{"id":1784,"date":"2006-07-26T19:57:03","date_gmt":"2006-07-27T00:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.librarysupportstaff.org\/?p=29"},"modified":"2006-07-26T19:57:03","modified_gmt":"2006-07-27T00:57:03","slug":"worldcatorg-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/26\/worldcatorg-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Worldcat.org"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/\">Worldcat.org<\/a> is arriving, starting next month, and OCLC is letting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infotoday.com\/newsbreaks\/nb060717-1.shtml\">bits and pieces of info<\/a> out about it.\u00a0 If they make the interface open enough for people and\/or organizations to make adaptations, this could be a big deal in the library world.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine having a Google-like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oclc.org\/worldcat\/images\/banner\/wcatdotorgbeta_searchbox.gif\">search box<\/a> that will locate any item available in a library throughout the world, as long as at least one OCLC member library has cataloged it. Now imagine (and I hope this can\/will be done) connecting the power of your local library (item check-outs, interlibrary loan, etc.) to this vast catalog.<\/p>\n<p>This already exists, but not in an easily accessible way.\u00a0 To use Worldcat, you either have to log into <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firstsearch.org\/\">OCLC FirstSearch<\/a> (ask your public or community college library for their login\/password), or use Google or Yahoo&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.oclc.org\/worldcat\/open\/how\/default.htm\">Find in a Library<\/a>&#8221; method known as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oclc.org\/worldcat\/open\/tryit\/default.htm\">Open WorldCat<\/a> (which contains a limited set of WorldCat records).\u00a0 Neither are well-known, and neither are straightforward enough for the instant recognition needed for widespread adoption.<\/p>\n<p>This will be different, if it is as open as it seems.\u00a0 Sites (including LibrarySupportStaff.org, assuming that OCLC&#8217;s info matches my interpretation of it) can install the search box and initiate searches.\u00a0 The results will go to the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcatlibraries.org\/wcpa\/top3mset\/12c8b7f9e7b69cdc.html\">Find in a Library<\/a>&#8221; page that will let one determine which local area libraries have that item.<\/p>\n<p>If it is as easy as that, then this will be a big deal.\u00a0 If it is set up in such a way as to let the sites modify the search in creative ways, then this will be bigger than anything in recent library memory.\u00a0 If it is locked down or limited too much, the risk is loss of usefulness, and it may go nowhere fast.<\/p>\n<p>August will be an interesting month&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Worldcat.org is arriving, starting next month, and OCLC is letting bits and pieces of info out about it.\u00a0 If they make the interface open enough for people and\/or organizations to make adaptations, this could be a big deal in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/26\/worldcatorg-2.html\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2943,2951,2965,2977,2978],"tags":[5350,5363,3023,3024,3025],"class_list":["post-1784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libraries","category-online-databases","category-search","category-web-design","category-websearch","tag-google","tag-oclc","tag-oclc-member-library","tag-search-box","tag-yahoo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSU5g-sM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}