• Reference Services
• Mar 07
• Issue: 210

WorldCat.Org/OpenWorldCat

The FirstSearch news this month addresses those institutions that have opted to purchase annual subscriptions to the WorldCat database on FirstSearch (as opposed to opting for Per-Search pricing, the other purchasing option on FirstSearch).

Institutions that contribute cataloging to WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog and subscribe to WorldCat on FirstSearch, the reference end-user service, may choose to have OCLC display their WorldCat holdings on WorldCat.org and Open WorldCat, thus increasing the visibility of their library on the Web. (Please see WorldCat on the Web at http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/web/.) People at OCLC have been making all sorts of updates to WorldCat.org/Open WorldCat over the past few months. New developments include:

Web links to WorldCat.org

You can build direct web links to specific items in WorldCat.org/Open WorldCat by following a prescribed linking format and embedding ISBN, ISSN, or OCLC numbers within the link.

For example, to create a direct link to a book in WorldCat.org, use the ISBN link format http://worldcat.org/isbn/[item ISBN]. For the book Marley & Me the link would be written like this: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0060817089.

You can also set-up search queries embedded in links. For more information on web links in WorldCat.org/Open WorldCat, please see http://worldcat.org/links/default.jsp.

A New Look For the WorldCat Search Box

The freely distributed WorldCat.org search box has been updated. The box, which can be placed on the Web site of any person or organization, is no longer contained within an HTML IFRAME. (The IFRAME-coded version prevented use of the box on some social Web services.) Available in two widths, the box is now also transparent, allowing better visual integration with the displaying web page. HTML styling of the associated text is easily modified.

You can register through WorldCat.org to get the search box code, or if you have previously downloaded code, get the updated HTML code, at: http://worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/org.oclc.lac.affiliate.GetSearchBox.

Reference Citation Feature for Students and Researchers

Item records now include a "Cite this Item" link to a separate pop-up window that provides bibliographic citations in five common styles: APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA and Turabian. End-users are cautioned that "formatting rules within a style can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study," and that they should apply the specific requirements of the appropriate reviewing entity.

Sorting Search Results

WorldCat.org/Open WorldCat end-users can now sort results by author (alphabetical by last name), title (alphabetical), and date (newest-to-oldest and oldest-to-newest). By default, search results are returned sorted by relevance.

Faceted Browse Now Includes Facet Expansion

Faceted browse lets a user filter his or her search results by categories ("facets") using the left-hand "RefineYour Search" panel. This dynamic navigation, increasingly popular in a variety ofWeb search facilities, further leverages WorldCat's structured metadata and helps users who may have difficulty narrowing a large result set understand the refinement options available to them. Each facet in its initial state displays only the five most relevant results. The "Show More" link lets the user incrementally reveal 25 additional results at a time, up to 100 results within the facet.

Web Resources Links

Individual items in WorldCat.org/Open WorldCat now include "Web Resources" links to supplemental content such as electronic books and digital objects. One wonderful example is: "Yellowstone Falls (from below)" (Painting, Univ. of Puget Sound): http://worldcat.org/oclc/61267918.

Chinese Language Interface For Find In A Library

The web interface of both WorldCat.org and Open WorldCat is now available in Simplified and Traditional Chinese. As with the English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch web interfaces, the WorldCat.org/Open WorldCat interface automatically detects the language encoding selected within a user's browser and displays the appropriate language version.

Interface language can also be manually switched at any time using links at the bottom of any Find in a Library page. (Changing interface languages does not alter the content of search results.)

OCLC FirstSearch Contact Information

For more information about OCLC's FirstSearch service, please contact Nylink's Joyce Rambo (ramboj@nylink.org) or Donna Dixon (dixond@nylink.org). They are available via email or phone (800-342-3353/518-443-5444).