Andy : October 2009 Archives

Personal vs professional: two views of WorldCat lists

By Andy on October 23, 2009 3:10 PM | | Comments (2)
Making lists on WorldCat.org is getting to be pretty popular. We currently have over 200,000 of them on the site, with more being added daily. I've done a few of them myself, including a recent one that is simply a copy of the items mentioned in a recent io9 blog post, "Where to start with young adult science fiction." WorldCat lists are great for things like that; keeping track of books that I'd eventually like to borrow from the library and read to/with my son at some point... in the frighteningly-ever-nearer future when he goes from "kid" (he's 10) to "young adult."

With a list like that, it's neat to be able to share it or send a simple link to a friend. WorldCat makes it easy for anybody to do that. Some lists, though, are quite a bit more... well... research intensive. And WorldCat is a great place to work on bibliographies of a much more substantive nature, especially if you want help from others.

A great example of such a list is one being created by the Senior Information Specialist here in OCLC's corporate library. Tam Dalrymple provides the writers and editors on my team with absolutely AWESOME research service for many of the pieces we work on, including some of the OCLC membership reports. But she also works on long-term projects related to the profession as a whole. Tam is currently assembling the list, "Library Users and Non-Users - A Bibliography from the OCLC Library." This is a collection of studies on how -- or whether -- libraries fit into people's information-seeking behavior. Right now Tam is concentrating on published books, reports or dissertations, rather than articles. Currently many of the items focus on library use and users, but one of her goals is to include more studies that start from the perspective of the information seeker.  There are 50 items on the list as of today... worth taking a look if you have any interest in research involving library use.

And... As you can guess from reading that description, this is a work in progress. Tam is actively soliciting idea for additions to the list. If you can think of something, feel free to email her at: dalrympt@oclc.org.

Two great ways to use WorldCat Lists: personal forget-me-nots, and shared, major research efforts. My guess is that there are a lot of other lists on WorldCat that fit somewhere in between.

PS: You can search for others' WorldCat lists by clicking on the "Search" drop-down box at the top of the WorldCat.org screen, and choosing "Search for Lists."

The week(s) in Tweets: 10/3/09 - 10/16/09

By Andy on October 16, 2009 3:12 PM |
News from the OCLC Twitter stream, from 10/3/09 through today.

Week in tweets (9/25 - 10/2/2009)

By Andy on October 2, 2009 4:41 PM |
« Andy : September 2009 | Main Index | Archives | Andy : November 2009 »

About this Archive

This page is an archive of recent entries written by Andy in October 2009.

Andy : September 2009 is the previous archive.

Andy : November 2009 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Syndication:

Andy : Monthly Archives