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OCLC and Yahoo! launch cobranded toolbar

Content from WorldCat subset now easily accessible on the open Web through pilot project with Yahoo! Search

OCLC and leading Internet search provider Yahoo! have released a cobranded Internet toolbar pilot that enables Yahoo! Search users to explore both the Web and a subset of the OCLC WorldCat database.

With the toolbar, Yahoo! Search users can now choose to limit their search results to items held in OCLC member libraries. With one click, users of the Yahoo!/OCLC toolbar have access to 2 million of the most popular records found in WorldCat.

The Yahoo!/OCLC toolbar is a pilot project associated with Open WorldCat, a new OCLC program designed to increase the online visibility of libraries and their collections. As part of the Open WorldCat program, OCLC plans to make all 57 million WorldCat records available to OCLC’s search partners for harvesting.

WorldCat harvesting and library ranking

A new prototype from OCLC’s Collection Management Division could drastically simplify “dark Web” searching. The single keyword search box searches against an index of the entire FirstSearch collection and uses library ranking to bring the most popular results to the top of the list.

“After doing this with all FirstSearch content, we would like to explore this same function across member library catalogs, licensed content and special collections. This new prototype could eventually become a view on FirstSearch, and also a search box at www.oclc.org,” said Mike Teets, Executive Director, OCLC Product Architecture and Development.

Left brain or right brain?

OCLC and Antarctica Systems, Inc. to test library users’ search preferences

OCLC is launching a pilot to evaluate library users’ experiences with searching and display of search results using a visual interface developed by Antarctica Systems, Inc. (www.antarctica.net/). The pilot will run from January through April 2005 and will be implemented on a database of electronic books that will be available to all users of the OCLC Base Package and the OCLC Collection on the OCLC FirstSearch service.

Antarctica Systems, Inc. will use its VisualNet data visualization software to create a visual interface to the electronic books database. When users select the electronic books database on FirstSearch, they will be given the option to use the visual interface for searching and viewing results. OCLC will conduct a user survey to gauge feedback during this pilot and will also collect usage statistics that will be evaluated for future applications.

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