WorldCat features: April 2009 Archives
We now have a WorldCat list widget available - you can see it in action here on the right hand side of the WorldCat Blog. You can customize the widget to display items on your public WorldCat list - just copy the HTML code in to your website and include the 'List ID' for your list.
Tips for using the list widget:
+ Make sure the privacy setting for your list is set to 'Public' ('Private' lists will not display in the widget). You can check your privacy settings in the 'Settings' area when logged in to WorldCat.org and viewing a list - the link is on the top left, just under your avatar picture (see image below).
+ This List ID is the 5 digit number at the end of the URL string when you are viewing your list.
+ WorldCat Local users can customize the list widget to their domain - see the instructions in the 'Notes' section at the bottom of the widget page.
+ First time working with a WorldCat Affiliate tool? you can log in with your standard WorldCat username and password. You may be prompted for some additional affiliate information.
4/29 at 12:56 EST: updated "WorldCat list widget" link
There's a WorldCat Webinar on the WorldCat Mobile pilot coming up this Wednesday, April 29.
WorldCat Mobile pilot Webinar
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
10:00 - 11:00AM US Eastern Daylight Savings time (3:00 - 4:00PM BST)
Register now
Facebook event page
That is day after tomorrow--hard to believe April is almost over already?
Hosted by Mark Allcock, global business manager in the OCLC UK office, the session is designed so you can ask questions, give feedback, and get the latest on recent and planned enhancements.
There are two more Webinars planned for WorldCat.org next month. So if you can't make it this week, mark your calendar now for May 21.
WorldCat.org Webinar
Thursday, May 21, 2009
9:00 - 10:00AM US Eastern Daylight Savings time (2:00 - 3:00PM BST)
Register now
WorldCat.org Webinar
Thursday, May 21, 2009
4:00 - 5:00PM US Eastern Daylight Savings time (1:00 - 2:00PM US Pacific Daylight Savings time)
Register now
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.
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.
Check out Smashing Magazine's article showcasing well designed tabbed navigation. WorldCat.org's tabbed search box (found on our home page) gets mentioned as a good design, with clean separation and rounded corners. Kudos to our designer, Chris Galvin, for a clean and simple design!
This well liked tabbed search box has been one of our design successes. We've incorporated the tabbed search box look and feel into our distributed search boxes for WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local.
Get your www.worldcat.org tabbed search box by creating a free affiliate account. Or get your institution's WorldCat Local tabbed search box by going to your institution's URL and appending '/tools/searchboxHTML' to the end of the URL. (See an example.)
Why aren't we putting this tabbed search box on the rest of our site? Good question. It's been a success as far as the user experience is concerned, so we are definitely looking at ways to incorporate it into our other pages. The worldcat.org search box was intended to be a simple keyword search box, similar to Google's search, so there are differences of opinions here at OCLC as to whether we should keep that box simple or begin to add more functionality to it.
In our April install, you can expect to see a redesigned search box across our entire site, but don't expect to see the tabbed search box on worldcat.org pages other than our home page just yet.
Here's a roundup of the latest enhancements to WorldCat.org. You may have already noticed a few of them, as you've been using the site lately.
New keyword search widget
The latest WorldCat widget is now ready for your download: Keyword Search. Weighing in at 300 pixels wide, this beauty is perfect for subject-specific Web pages and blogs. You customize it with specific search terms initially, so that relevant materials available through WorldCat.org are automatically displayed to your site visitors. You can play around with it, here.
Save your WorldCat searches
If you find yourself repeatedly crafting searches around something specific like a hobby or large-print editions, this new feature will be a real time saver. Just do a search and refine your query as usual. Once you have the results set you want, click the "Save this Search" box in the upper right of the results screen. Now you can see at a glance if new materials are available in a WorldCat library.
Cover art now on brief results
Hooray, check it out!
Profile enhancements: popularity tracking
You may not think your activities in WorldCat are interesting to anyone else, but now you can know how popular your profile is through a new ticker. Having a robust profile helps people know more about you when they look at one of your lists or reviews.
Get ready for big changes to the site design, look and feel in April. After extensive usability testing, WorldCat.org is getting an extensive update to make it easier and more intuitive to use.
I know we've mentioned weRead before but I'm happy to now announce weRead as an official WorldCat partner. weRead is a social reading site and community for book lovers. Here's the official announcement.
As part of our partnership, you'll be able to view reviews from weRead users alongside reviews from other WorldCat.org users, Educational Media Reviews Online & Amazon reviews.
In addition, WorldCat.org also uses the weRead recommendations engine to make "Read By Others" suggestions for additional titles of interest on a WorldCat.org detailed record page.
Come and take a look and add your own reviews too!
