Hats off to Worldcat.org
I’ve been looking at Worldcat.org and guess what…...
Like my colleague Paul Miller I kind of like it. It’s a step in the right direction. Holdings, although still closely guarded at least we are allowed a peek at them. Almost like a naughty school child allowed into a sweet shop, allowed to look but certainly not allowed to touch or eat any. Saying that though, there are some key features I like such as:
• The simple searching
• Faceted browsing
• Link to Amazon if I wanted to buy it (I like choice)
There’s one thing I would comment on though. When I search for any book, even for the fairly common titles often the 2/3rd record is well over commuting distance and the 7, 8 or 9th location is abroad (I would love to see the face of my girlfriend if I were to suggest going to Istanbul Bilgi University in Turkey to borrow the Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban DVD as the closest other 5 libraries don’t have it in stock). It appears that a few other people are experiencing the same thing).
Perhaps, if it was free to contribute to WorldCat.org for every library I wonder if there would be more locations.
(Photo taken by SideLong displayed in Flickr)
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