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Deep linking from Open WorldCat to your library’s catalog

Deep linking enables Web users to link from search results (in Yahoo!, Google or other partner sites) to the Find in a Library interface in open-Web WorldCat, and then directly to the item’s record in their library’s online public access catalog (OPAC).

Deep linking gets Web users outside the library environment "the last mile," from their broad Internet searches all the way to the initiation of circulation activity at the holding institution.

Creating “deep links” is fast and simple to do. To ensure deep links to your library’s OPAC, you should register the appropriate URL link structure for the OPAC; FirstSearch libraries can do this quickly in their administrative module, while libraries without FirstSearch accounts can register by using the Open WorldCat feedback form, available at https://www3.oclc.org/app/openwc/.

The downloadable deep linking tutorial explains how to set up deep linking and includes a chart of URL structures for various Integrated Library Systems (ILS). View the WorldCat deep linking tutorial at: www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcatorg/deeplinking/default.htm.

Library staff can track the amount of online traffic driven to their resources from open-Web WorldCat on the statistics site at www.stats.oclc.org. Libraries that have WorldCat holdings but currently do not have a subscription to the WorldCat database on FirstSearch must purchase an unlimited subscription to keep their holdings visible through WorldCat's Web interface beginning July 1, 2005.


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