Detailed record redesign is here
If you've already visited WorldCat.org this week, you might have already noticed the redesigned detailed display. The new design helps you locate and get an item more quickly, and puts social actions and evaluative content right up top--so you can tell fairly quickly if an item is the resource you want. My personal favorite thing is the new larger, persistent search box at the top.
In addition, the "More like this" box helps you find related content that is lower down in the page. In fact, we've now aggregated all the information about an item onto a single page instead of hiding it under several tabs, making it much easier to see everything about an item without making multiple clicks.
One note: there were a few minor issues that surfaced during this major redesign. We're working to resolve these few small things as fast as we can.
On April 22, 2009 at 1:12 PM Mrs Hamilton said:
Is there an option whereby I can rearrange the sections on an item detail screen? For example, I'd like to see the item description first, bookseller links last. Thanks for considering it.
On April 22, 2009 at 1:45 PM Alice Sneary
said:
Hello Mrs. Hamilton. Thanks for the suggestion. Right now you are not able to rearrange the sections, although you can toggle them on and off with the + or - buttons on the grey bar. You can simply collapse the sections you don't want to see.
The new modular design does potentially allow for personalization options like this, and we'll add your suggestion to the list for future consideration.
On April 23, 2009 at 1:41 PM Beth Addis said:
The links to the libraries are not showing up until I move my mouse beside the icon of the library. There are other links that are hidden, also. I am using Internet Explorer 6, but we will be upgrading to Explore 7 in the near future.
Thank you.
On April 24, 2009 at 10:34 AM Laura
said:
Thanks for the notification Beth - we're investigating the issue. We do believe that an upgrade to IE7 or later should resolve the problem.
On April 24, 2009 at 5:25 PM Anne Barker said:
Are you already aware of the issue with the "just this edition" link? When you select "just this edition" and click "next" after reviewing the first page of results, the screen defaults again to showing all editions. I can not see anything beyond the first page of results for "just this edition".
Also, is there any hope that the individual records will eventually load more quickly than they currently do? The list of holding libraries seems to take a long time to come up.
On April 24, 2009 at 8:32 PM Graeme Williams said:
Unless I've missed it somehow, you dropped the "Link to this item" link which gave you a clean link to the page.
I used it regularly; whenever I mentioned a book on my blog, I'd link to the WorldCat entry rather than the more usual Amazon link.
On April 26, 2009 at 12:34 AM Alice Sneary
said:
Thanks Anne. I hadn't heard of this issue being reported previously--so I am very glad you brought it to our attention. We'll get to work!
On April 26, 2009 at 12:41 AM Alice Sneary
said:
Thanks Graeme. A number of us have been missing the permalink--especially bloggers. Having the short URL is good for tweets about what you're reading, too. And we love it when people link to the WorldCat entry to tell other people what they're reading...because then it means those other people can find the item in THEIR local library.
Until the permalink comes back (soon, we hope!) you can *hack* it by going to the detailed record page URL of a book and stripping off everything to the right of the 6-digit number.
On April 28, 2009 at 9:28 PM Scrub Tops said:
It's my first time to visit WorldCat.org and I have to say I really like it. What I love most about the site is that you can save your searches. This way, you won't have to rack up your brain in the future what you were looking for. For forgetful people like me, this is really great.
On April 28, 2009 at 9:55 PM Alice Sneary
said:
Thanks, Scrub Tops. We're glad you like the new feature. We like it, too and have decided even the most nonforgetful people might appreciate not having to recreate complex searches every time they come to the site. Welcome to WorldCat.org and searching the world's libraries!
On April 29, 2009 at 9:03 PM Scrub Tops said:
Thanks for the welcome Alice.. It truly is a great help for people who love to read...like me. :D Best of luck to you folks and I hope you cover more libraries on more countries in the future.
On May 2, 2009 at 9:15 PM David Goodman said:
Using the public interface:
For academic material, the section "view online" is singularly unhelpful. It appears whether or not the books have an online version anywhere, but always lists a few libraries nonetheless: none of which have the book: the Univ. of Washington and UMDNJ always appear, but lead to a blank page, and University of Toronto leads you to a page that says it does not have it, but proposed to search their catalog for print.
If by any chance U. Toronto does have it online, and has entered the fact, then of course it is available only to those associated with that university. For this to appear would make sense if one's profile were set to show such a connection, but not otherwise.
I see the section can be collapsed, which I always do--but I have to do it item by item--it does not retain the setting even for the same session. What would help much more is for it to recognize from my profile that I do not want it.
On May 4, 2009 at 3:21 PM Alice Sneary
said:
Thanks David. The "view online" is something we've been working on--it will help when NetLibrary content comes onto the WorldCat platform this summer.
Your collapsed/open section suggestion makes a lot of sense to me as a profile setting, and I will pass it along to the developers to see if we could make it happen.
Thanks for taking the time to let us know how we can continue to improve WorldCat.org and your experience.
On May 14, 2009 at 12:23 PM Irritated User said:
Is there a way to see ALL libraries which have the item, not just nearby ones. I'm using WorldCAT much less than before, since the new interface is mucher less helpful for my needs. Please include a link where you can find all libraries! Thank you!
On May 14, 2009 at 3:19 PM Laura
said:
Hello,
Thanks for your feedback, we'd like to learn more about the issue...
With the new detailed record design, you can still see 'All libraries' (the list will always start with nearby libraries based on postal/zip code recognition). To see all libraries, use the pagination just below the initial set of 6 libraries. You may need to scroll to see this pagination option. We are wondering if users are not seeing this pagination option due to its placement - is that what you experienced?