The OCLC WorldMap is a prototype system that provides an interactive tool for selecting and displaying international library holdings represented in WorldCat, as well as publishing, library, cultural heritage and population data.
The OCLC WorldMap allows users to select countries of interest, then to compare various library holding and data by country. WorldMap will generate interactive graphs that compare several different kinds of data for up to four countries at a time.
The new WorldCat Facebook application provides access to WorldCat searches and user-created lists from personalized pages within a Facebook account.
The application includes a home screen with the WorldCat search box, as well as quick links to WorldCat searches based on topics listed in a Facebook profile as personal interests. The application also includes:
- a built-in, advanced WorldCat search;
- a panel that allows users to invite other Facebook friends to install WorldCat;
- a "Something to Read" panel that displays books recently added to WorldCat lists; and
- a "Favorite WorldCat Lists" panel where users track their own lists or those of other WorldCat users.
At 5:26 p.m. local time on November 29th, a user of Bibliotheek Waterland, the public library in and around Purmerend, the Netherlands, logged on to the Al@din reference service and asked the question: “What is the distribution of market share for automobiles in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the U.K.?”
It was the 3 millionth question logged on QuestionPoint, the virtual reference desk developed by OCLC and the Library of Congress and the system that hosts the Netherlands’ Al@din service. The question was forwarded to and answered by specialists on this subject of the Openbare Bibliotheek Groningen. Al@din, the Dutch digital reference desk, is a Web-based network of librarians that delivers reference assistance to researchers anytime, anyplace. It is one of eight groups and more than 100 libraries worldwide that are locally branding a customized version of QuestionPoint. Al@din links 230 public libraries in the Netherlands and is available to any library user in the country through the Netherlands Public Library Association Web site. Al@din can answer questions locally and nationally or seamlessly refer them to the QuestionPoint network, which consists of more than 1,700 libraries in 23 countries.
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