Alice Sneary: January 2010 Archives
Now it's easier than ever to find the specific library you're looking for.
A "library type" facet has been added to the "Find a library near you" functionality, so you can narrow your library search results even quicker. Options include choices of:
- Academic Research Libraries (ARLs)
- Academic libraries
- Archives
- Governmental libraries
- Library Networks
- Public libraries
- Schools
- Corporate or Special libraries
Search for your favorite library, through WorldCat.org!
Article-level records for content in the JSTOR Archive are now indexed in WorldCat.org and delivered in WorldCat.org search results. Scholars and researchers will now be able to identify JSTOR resources through WorldCat.org and connect with the full-text content using the authorization provided by their library.
JSTOR is a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive with more than 4.5 million records from 1,000+ academic journals and selected monographs. It includes archives of more than one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work.
WorldCat.org indexing of JSTOR metadata helps researchers more easily identify resources in the collection. An authorization is required for access to full-text materials in JSTOR.
Learn more about the JSTOR Archives. >>
Lots of interest around the recent inclusion of library results in the RedLaser iPhone app. We've been playing around with it, too, and made a quick 43 second video of how it works, just in case you don't have an iPhone:
WorldCat.org results are made possible through the WorldCat Search API and WorldCat Registry APIs. More about both of these tools in the Web Services for developers area. Note that right now RedLaser serves up results for books in the U.S. It's not that we (WorldCat) or they (Occipital) don't want to serve up more results for videos, CDs, DVDs, games, magazines--all the content a library offers (no matter where in the world you or your library is)--but they're trying to walk before they run, and run before they fly. We all look forward to flying with RedLaser.
In the meantime, remember the WorldCat Mobile pilot is still available for ANY Web-enabled phone in the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Canada and the US. If your phone doesn't support apps, there is a Web "lite" version that comes up. Plus we're also simultaneously exploring how to make the whole site itself, WorldCat.org, more mobile-friendly so you can have your profile, lists and everything else at hand, in your hand.
Read the Belorussian translation
of this page.
If you're a librarian--or you live in the greater Boston area and want to learn more about the "behind the scenes" view of libraries and participate in one of the biggest library conferences in the U.S.--plan to join us at ALA Midwinter 2010 for programs about how WorldCat, WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local can enhance your library's visibility and give you faster, easier access to resources at your library and libraries around the world. These programs were created with a librarian audience in mind, but we always love to hear from library and WorldCat users if you're able to come!
Saturday, January 16
Reaching Consumers through Nontraditional Methods: What Can WorldCat Do for You?
An interactive panel of librarians, library users and industry leaders share strategies of how WorldCat.org helps them reach consumers, researchers, developers and partner organizations through social tools, mobile apps, APIs and more. Speakers include:
• Graeme Williams, a superpatron from the Waltham Public Library
• Jennifer Freidman, Collections Manager and Public Services Librarian at MIT
• Andrew Yu, Mobile platform Manager and Architect at MIT
• Roy Tennant, technologist and co-founder of the OCLC Developer Network
• Cindy Cunningham, director for OCLC partnership programs
• our own Jasmine De Gaia, global product manager for WorldCat.org
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon, Westin Waterfront, Hancock Room
Single-search Access to Your Library's Electronic Resources from OCLC
Learn how your library can offer single-search access to your print, electronic and digital resources through WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local and WorldCat Local "quick start."
1:30 - 3:30 p.m., Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Room 162 A/B
Sunday, January 17
WorldCat: New Dimensions in Growth and Quality
Learn how OCLC is building and enriching WorldCat, including synchronization of local library collections and WorldCat, and new metadata management enhancements that increase discoverability of library collections on the Web.
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Room 157 C
Local Impact--Global Reach: WorldCat Local for Your Library
Hear implementation and usage experiences from librarians who use WorldCat Local. Speakers include:
• Barbara Glackin, Head of Cataloging and Online Catalog, Boise State University
• Nina McHale, Web Librarian, University of Colorado, Denver
• Kari Schmidt, Electronic Resources Librarian and Head of the Electronic Resources Management Unit, American University
1:30 - 3:30 p.m., Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Room 104 A/B
Register now to reserve your spot at these ALA Midwinter sessions.
This story came to us from NPR via LIS News--one of the many blogs we read in the library bibliosphere, as it is sometimes called.
Initially the post looks like a standard book review of Allison Hoover Bartlett's book, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. You can read more and get an excerpt on the story from the NPR story "Literary Larceny"--which we liked so much we stole the title for our post, too.
But once you read the comments, the WorldCat-interesting-ness starts to unfold. Apparently the FBI used WorldCat in order to help catch literary thieves--and OCLC (the library cooperative who helps maintain WorldCat) created a video in 1990 to tell the tale. The video (VHS) is called "The Omaha Project: A Rare Book Adventure" and is available in more than 546 libraries around the world. The summary is as follows:
Four OCLC staff members and 40 volunteers use [WorldCat,] the OCLC database [,] to help the FBI inventory more than 20,000 stolen rare books and manuscripts allegedly stolen by Stephen C. Blumberg and help locate their possible owners.
How cool is that! WorldCat even helps track down criminals. Who knew?
