Discover WorldCat.org

This new Web portal is a new way for users to reach the riches of the world’s libraries

By Tom Storey

Today’s users want the universe of information— including library resources—at their fingertips, as part of their Web experience. To help meet this demand, OCLC is rolling out a new destination site with a downloadable search box designed to elevate the visibility of library collections and services on the Web.

Students, researchers, librarians and other information seekers can go to WorldCat.org to search the WorldCat database or add the new WorldCat search box to their Web sites.

WorldCat.org is a permanent Web page dedicated solely to searching WorldCat libraries. Students, researchers, librarians and other information seekers can go to this site to search the WorldCat database or add the new WorldCat search box, which will reside on WorldCat.org, to their Web sites. Instructions for downloading and installing the new box, as well as other tools for helping libraries and other organizations make better use of WorldCat, also will be available at WorldCat.org.

The initial focus is on discovery of library collections, but content delivery and virtual reference services will be added in later versions so users can connect to a more complete array of library resources.

The new WorldCat.org Web site and search box will let more people discover the riches of library-held materials cataloged in WorldCat by making the complete database accessible for free on the open Web. It complements access that is now available to library collections through Open WorldCat, an OCLC program started in 2004 that puts WorldCat records in the results lists of search engines, online bibliographies and Internet booksellers.

Open WorldCat has demonstrated the value of making WorldCat records and library holdings available to the general public on the Web. Each month, there are about 5 million click-throughs from search engine sites, such as Yahoo! Search, Google, Google Scholar and other partners, to the Open WorldCat Find in a Library page. Traffic from the Find in a Library page to library services—OPACs, ILL services, full-text articles, virtual reference services—totaled some 1.5 million from July 2005 to June 2006, with approximately 80 percent of click-throughs going to library OPACs.

WorldCat.org expands this program by further exposing the resources of libraries to Web users who are not in the habit of turning to libraries for information. Users will have a more fulfi lling search experience with WorldCat.org because it gives them access to the entire database of 70+ million records, rather than the 3.4–4.4 million subsets harvested by search engine partners. Essentially, with WorldCat.org, WorldCat becomes the largest open access catalog of library materials.

The idea of establishing a dedicated portal for libraries and users through WorldCat.org is an important strategic move for OCLC to take on behalf of member libraries, says Stewart Bodner, Associate Chief Librarian–General Research Division and Acting Curator, Rare Books Division at the New York Public Library.

Bodner says that the WorldCat.org platform will help libraries, both individually and collectively, deliver content and services to the network and build a unified, high-value consumer presence on the Web.

“I am wedded to the concept of quick access to our cataloged materials from the desktop,” says Bodner.“WorldCat.org will help libraries move into a more search engine mode, which is how most people search now. Using a browser might be the easy way to gain access to a particular library’s records and serve people more quickly and efficiently.”

Initially the main attraction of the new site is the WorldCat search box, which allows Web users to search the WorldCat database with the method most familiar to them: simple keywords. Search results in this public view of WorldCat are generated directly on WorldCat.org, instead of through search engine partners. Just as in Open WorldCat, each linked search result leads to a Find in a Library information page for an individual item. There the user can enter geographic information, receive a list of nearby WorldCat libraries that own the item, and link right to a library’s online catalog record to initiate circulation activity or access electronic content directly.

More tools that put libraries in the Web workspace

WorldCat.org also will offer these features designed to appeal to a new generation of Web users accustomed to instant access, lots of options and anything that facilitates personalization and redistribution:

• Free Web toolbars and other plug-ins that let people search WorldCat information from an ever-present browser pane.

• A variety of open-source software and Web services, such as RSS feeds, which anyone can register for and use. These technology components—part of the developing WorldCat Affiliate Program—continuously pull defined sets of information out of WorldCat, link to WorldCat search results, or link to WorldCat libraries’ online catalogs and services.

• The ability to contribute reviews and notes to WorldCat records, or to directly buy an item from a trusted e-commerce partner, both introduced in Open WorldCat.

Links from Open WorldCat results pages to WorldCat.org let people who arrive from partner sites discover the destination site and these library-information accessories.

In the coming months, OCLC will expand search options available in WorldCat.org to include other content, including databases that now reside on the OCLC FirstSearch service as well as content on other Web platforms.

To Bodner, leveraging WorldCat records and reference databases through search engines, Internet booksellers and Web portals is just the beginning of the creative ways libraries can make their resources more useful.

“It’s pretty amazing how far we’ve come the last 10 years but it’s only a prelude to greater things down the road.”

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