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New WorldCat Search Site Offers Public AccessOCLC has announced that it will launch a new destination website that will allow users to search the holdings of libraries participating in the WorldCat database directly rather than finding the records as part of search-engine results.The firm says the aim of WorldCat.org, to be released in beta form in August, is “to make library resources more visible to Web users, and to increase awareness of libraries.” Unlike the Open WorldCat program, which inserts “Find in a Library” pages into the results from Google and other search engines, the new site will give library holdings greater visibility by providing a permanent destination page with a search box to access all 70-million-plus records in the WorldCat database, not just the 3.4-to-4.4-million-record subset harvested by Open WorldCat’s search-engine partners. As in Open WorldCat, each linked search result leads to a “Find in a Library” information page for an individual item. By entering geographic information, users get a list of nearby WorldCat libraries that own the item and links to the libraries’ online catalog records. OCLC will also offer a free modularized version of the WorldCat.org search box that users or organizations can install on their websites, as well as free web toolbars and other plug-ins and a variety of open-source software and web services such as RSS feeds. Chip Nilges, vice president of OCLC New Services, said in Information Today online July 17 that WorldCat.org is designed to complement the syndication model of Open WorldCat rather than to replace it. “There’s a symbiosis,” he said. “There’s value in having a place to go to search the world’s largest library catalog and there’s also value in capturing users who may not know about libraries.” Posted July 21, 2006. |
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