WorldCat detailed record make-over coming soon!
Soon, you will notice some exciting changes to the WorldCat item details area.
The WorldCat team has been working on updating the design to provide users with clear options to locate library materials and, where possible, to access those materials. The redesign will provide more evaluative information - and will make it easier for users to manage their items and to provide their own evaluative information about the items.
We look forward to hearing what you think.
On April 20, 2009 at 1:49 PM Janet Thomas said:
Just saw the new layout. Is it a law now that everything HAS to look like Amazon?
My only real problem with the new (copied) look is that the OCLC number and ISBN are no longer at the top of the record. We now have to click down twice to get to it.
On April 20, 2009 at 4:04 PM Christie @ OCLC said:
Janet,
Thank you for your feedback.
When we redesigned the detailed record, we collected a lot of user data from surveys, card sorts, and usability tests to determine what the most important information was to an end user, and prioritized the display areas for this information.
In designing WorldCat.org, our primary focus is the needs of the end user/ patron. The data we collected from our users did not indicate that OCLC, ISBN, and ISSN numbers were as important as the other data we display up top. In fact, it was the 12th most important piece of information identified by users who responded to our survey (students, teachers/professors, and business professionals appear to be the main groups of users who responded). Title, author, and summary were the top 3 pieces of information followed by publication year, online access, publisher, language, and editions. The other information is displayed in the details section on the page.
As WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local evolve, we understand we may need a view or views of the pages that are more suited to librarian workflow and will shift our focus accordingly.
On April 21, 2009 at 3:41 PM Michele Estep said:
Good afternoon.
I just noticed something odd in the "held formats" areas of various DVD records. Next to the holding library it will say: "DVD video not held; 1 other format." When you click on "1 other format" which is a link, it shows that the library holds the DVD. So the system is saying that "DVD video" is not the same as "DVD." Those libraries which indeed DO hold this DVD are listed as NOT holding the DVD Video. Is this just a temporary glitch? Thanks for your help.
Michele
On April 21, 2009 at 9:53 PM Laura
said:
Hi Michele,
Thanks for the feedback - I'm looking in to this and will let you know what I find out. If there is a particular record that you could point us to as an example, that would be a great help.
Thanks, Laura
On April 22, 2009 at 6:24 PM Michele Estep said:
Hi Laura.
I think that this particular problem might be affecting many DVD bib records (if not all?).
I went to advanced search and typed in the subject field: Video recordings for the hearing impaired. Then I narrowed it by DVD.
If you look at the results, it will show that the listed libraries do NOT hold the DVD-Video, but if you look at the individual libraries' records, you will see that they DO have these DVDs.
Naturally, I haven't looked at all DVD records, but I wanted to pick a very common access point (thus, video recordings for the hearing impaired). I can send some more examples, but I think you'll see right away what I mean.
Has anybody else commented on this yet?
Thanks for your attention.
Michele
On April 23, 2009 at 11:42 AM Laura
said:
Hi Michele,
Apparently this is a known issue and we are working to correct it as soon as we can.
Thanks again for your feedback.
On April 28, 2009 at 5:40 PM waqas said:
i am just wondering, where are the different references for items or Cite item options gone. they wre really good and helpful.
On April 29, 2009 at 9:51 AM Laura
said:
Hello,
We still provide the citations tool in our new design, it is now located under the "Cite" link in the top right of an item's details page. This area still includes the citation for the item in APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA and Turabian - as well as the ability to export to RefWorks or EndNote.
You may also get citations for a list of items through a WorldCat list; including the ability to export the list of citations as HTML, RTF, RIS or to RefWorkd or EndNote.