[Web4lib] positioning WorldCat Local

[Cox, Thomas]

Good afternoon:

Tisch library at Tufts University has the option of providing OCLC's WorldCat Local search interface to our patrons.  Our Web Services Team is devising a strategy.  Like many libraries, we offer a tab interface for direct interaction with our library catalog as well as electronic resources.  The current trend for libraries providing access to WorldCat Local appears to be replacing the "classic" catalog (local OPAC) search with WorldCat Local, but including a link to the local OPAC (see University of Washington Libraries<http://www.lib.washington.edu/> for an example).  Others have chosen to place WorldCat Local in a tab unto itself and keep the local OPAC in another tab - see University of Connecticut Libraries<http://www.lib.uconn.edu/>.

Would anyone be willing to share their strategy and rationale in providing WorldCat Local to your community, as well as student response to the interface?

Thanks ever so much,

Thom

Thom W. Cox
Technical Project Manager
Tisch Library
Tufts University
Medford, MA

"Every technology has a philosophy which is given
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