[WEB4LIB] RE: Yahoo-OCLC toolbar

[D.H. Mattison]

I tried the toolbar out last night. The Yahoo OCLC Toolbar page
(http://www.oclc.org/toolbar/) contains an outdated version of the "special
edition", so if you try the Anti-Spy software within the toolbar, you'll get
a notice that there's a newer version available. I needed to disable the
popup blocker within the Yahoo Toolbar to download the Anti-Spy update! You
can't, however, install the regular version of Yahoo Toolbar
(http://toolbar.yahoo.com) first and then the special edition with the
WorldCat search capabilities.

Although the system requirements indicate the Yahoo OCLC toolbar needs
Windows 98, 2000 or XP, I installed it on a Windows Millennium machine with
Internet Explorer 6.x and it works fine. Likely it will also work on Windows
NT.

Monica Ruck's complaint about not being plunked right into your chosen
library's OPAC record for the title you see on the Open WorldCat site is a
well-known issue that OCLC says it's working on resolving. This problem also
exists with the RedLightGreen service from RLG (see Nancy O'Neill's
excellent article in the November/December issue of Searcher on her tests of
the Open WorldCat Pilot;
http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/nov04/oNeill.shtml). Monica's conclusion
is the same one Nancy and others came to, that while both Open WorldCat and
RedLightGreen services are great middleware, the inconsistent end results
leave one no better off than if you were to directly search your own
library's OPAC. What's also of interest to me is that neither of these
services offers the accuracy of a Z39.50 search.

The other question here is why is it taking Google so long to respond with
some kind of similar tool or innovation from their partnership with OCLC?

David Mattison
Victoria, BC, Canada
dmattison at shaw.ca
Tiki Wiki Hut: http://www.davidmattison.ca/tiki
Ten Thousand Year Blog: http://www.davidmattison.ca/wordpress

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Monica Ruck
Sent: November 17, 2004 6:40 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: Yahoo-OCLC toolbar


Hi all

Thanks for posting the info on the new Yahoo-OCLC
toolbar. Has anyone tried it out yet?