Recently in Tools Category

A nifty new WorldCat app has just been released on Facebook called CiteMe. Type in a title, author, subject, or isbn and presto! A formatted citation comes up, right in the Facebook environment.

Of course, if you're looking to do a whole bibliography in a click, staying on the WorldCat.org site is the way to go. You can build a list of all your works and generate your Works Cited page, quickly and easily. But for one or two listings or a quick refresher when you're posting out--this new Facebook app can't be beat!

You've probably already noticed...but full-featured ratings and reviews are now available and fully functional. All the list errors Bob mentioned earlier should be fixed. Let us know if you're still seeing something unexpected. Here's a rundown of the new stuff. You can:

• Quickly rate items on a five-star scale
• Create and save drafts of your reviews
• Write a review in your preferred language

On your profile page, you'll see links to reviews you've published--as well as draft reviews that you're still working on. To read other people's opinions, look right below the five-star rating area on an item’s detailed record.

We'll add reviews from additional sources soon. For now, though, write a quick review of your favorite movie, book or article. On its detailed record, look for the “Review this item” link under the “Add to It” section.

Also new: Cover art added to lists

You may have seen full-color cover art on individual detailed records. Now you'll find cover art for your list items, too. For some reason, seeing all the covers makes me so happy. It's like it brings the books to life!

Google recently released a book viewability API that provides links to books in Google Book Search using ISBNs, LCCNs, and OCLC numbers. Basically (without going into a bunch of code stuff that I don’t really understand), this API allows other organizations to link to books that Google has scanned (and will scan) based on data that is pushed/pulled automatically back and forth between the requesting site and Google.

[BTW... You now know the ugly truth: I am not a programmer; see “code stuff” and “pushed/pulled” above]

The upshot of all this, though, is that sites like WorldCat.org can provide a link back to Google Books. Sometimes that will mean the full text of the book, sometimes not. For example, Cory Doctorow’s great novel, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom,” is available in full. So the WorldCat.org page for that book shows a link under “Get it” to “View Item Online (Google Books).” This takes you to the Google Books page for that work and the full text.

It’s not just a one-way street, though. If you find a book in Google Book Search, you can often follow a link for it back to local libraries through WorldCat.org. So, suppose you locate the Google Book page for "The Future of Freedom" by Fareed Zakaria. You'll find that the entry for this work is a limited preview. But you'll also find a link under the "Buy this Book" choices to "Find this book in a library," which (you guessed it), takes you back to the WorldCat.org page for it.

Fun stuff.