Database Tips: Books Lists in WorldCat

WorldCat Lists

http://scanblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/worldcat-lists.html

Alice from the It’s All Good blog reports that WorldCat.org has added a new list-making functionality. She also offers some great suggestions for how to use this feature.

It took me a little while to figure out how to use this. You need a free account to create lists, and it helps if you are already logged in when you run your search. It also helps if you create a list first and then add items to it. Once you create a new list, use the the search box to find items. In your list of search results, you will have a dropdown menu to choose to save it to any list you have created or the Things I Recommend, Things I Own, or Things to Check Out lists that are already created for you.

I did a quick search of other lists (Search > Lists) and found these ideas:

• children’s books (I bet you could have lists for grade/age levels or certain themes/topics)
• favorite authors
• books read recently
• books to read soon

You can also search for people who have created profiles under Search > Contacts.

Anyone have suggestions for how to use this list feature?

Library News: WorldCat Local – oh, it makes sense now!

I’ve heard several people talking…well, no, I’ve read several people blogging about WorldCat Local. I’ve wondered what this is all about. It sounds great, but I need to see how things work.

Sarah Houghton-Jan, the Librarian in Black, posted a review and some screenshots of the first installation of this project at University of Washington Libraries (use the search box in the upper right for an example search).

http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2007/05/first_worldcat_.html

I like this, but I agree that it still needs some work. As a former ILL person, I had worried about libraries using WorldCat without finding a way to emphasize local holdings, but this slightly allays my fears.

Database Tips: Cite This Item in WorldCat

Bill Drew (Baby Boomer Librarian) is glad to see the “Cite This Item” feature added to WorldCat.

http://babyboomerlibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/04/firstsearch-worldcat-cite-this-now.html

I am, too! Wow! I just tried this out, and it works nicely. Thank you, OCLC! And our patrons who don’t have software like EndNote and RefWorks thank you, too.

(Of course, then I had to add the book Bill uses as an example in his post to my Amazon wishlist, which just keeps getting longer and longer.)

Has anyone had a chance to use this in their library? Any great success stories?

Courtney