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WorldCat Local : Interface features

Features of WorldCat Local

To your Web-savvy patrons, WorldCat Local looks like part of your library's online experience and feels like other search and social sites they use regularly.

Your library's branding

The page banner, which includes the WorldCat menu bar and search box, is customized with your logo or name and your choice of link and background colors. The menu bar features drop menus with quick links to help information, different kinds of searches, and a customized menu (1) where you can place links to other key services or information elsewhere on your Web site or network. While typing in their search terms, your users can select a specific search scope (2) that lets them limit results to a specific location or expand their search to the entire library system; system and group; or system, group and all WorldCat libraries.

Search results

WorldCat Local search results present items from your collection first (1), followed by those held by your consortium or group, and finally those held by WorldCat libraries globally (WorldCat Local "quick start" presents local and global results only). Finding aids and social tools from WorldCat.org are included: Search facets (2) let users increasingly narrow the displayed result set by focusing on a specific author, format, publication year, language or other indices; result sorting (3) lets a user order the displayed items by location, relevance, author, title or date; and save features (4) let users save a search at any point in its refinement, or mark specific items for addition to a personal, sharable list of library items.

Item record: Location and availability

An item record in WorldCat Local lets your patrons quickly determine if the work is the correct one using the same evaluative information available on WorldCat.org. Basic bibliographic information (1) includes cover art and a descriptive summary when available, and links to a display of all editions and formats of the item. The record links to content previews from Google Books and other providers (2) when those are available as well. Availability information and other informational sections can be expanded or collapsed (3) allowing users to navigate to other parts of the page more quickly without scrolling. Users know quickly where they can get an item with fulfillment options displayed prominently, including a summary of locally available copies plus shelf location and current status (4), as well as links to online full text and/or your ILS' facility for placing a hold or resource-sharing request (5).

Item record: IP-authenticated local services

Item records also show links to related services (1) on your library's network relative to the displayed item. Patrons who use your WorldCat Local catalog from within your defined IP address range see these additional options.

Item record: Group libraries

When local copies are unavailable, a user can see how many institutions within the larger consortium own the item (1) and ask for more detailed information from individual libraries via a "Check availability" link (3). The requested information (3) is returned without a page reload and is presented in the same manner as the local library, with any full-text options to which the user may have access, plus availability summary, locations, status and a link to your resource-sharing request facility (4).

Item record: WorldCat libraries

When necessary, a user can also use the "Find in a library" facility from WorldCat.org to discover copies of an item in other libraries outside your local and consortial network. Users can enter their location or select an IP-detected location (1) and again receive results (2) in real time without a page reload. A link to your library's resource-sharing service (3) may be available depending on your WorldCat Local configuration.

Item record: More evaluative information and links to related items

Additional collapsible panels on the item record page present more bibliographic details and let users explore similar works through social tags and lists created by other users across the WorldCat platform, or via subject headings. Editorial reviews from authoritative sources such as Books in Print, plus user-contributed reviews from WorldCat and popular Web sites including Amazon and weRead, are also available.