[Web4lib] google & library catalogs

[Thomas Dowling]

On 4/12/2006 3:30 PM, Drew, Bill wrote:

> Its going to suck if any of us do it!  What needs to be done is to
> improve the placement of OpenWorldCat in Google searches.

Could we standardize on a format in which to expose catalog records to
web search engines?  Many of us can create pages capable of detecting
our own users, by IP or other values.  We could expose a page that:
displays to unrecognized users rich metadata, a link to the record in
Open Worldcat ("Find at libraries near you") and a login link for local
users who need to authenticate somewhere; and redirects recognized users
directly to the catalog record.

Having multiple library records for a given book in Google would
ultimately have to make them more visible in Google search results.
Having all of them route users to Worldcat gets them where we'd like
them to be (except our own users) with a minimum of clicking.


-- 
Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu