[WEB4LIB] RE: Yahoo-OCLC toolbar

[Andrew I. Mutch]

My understanding of this, and it seems to be confirmed by testing, is that
this is dependent on whether your library or library system has enabled
this feature in WorldCat as Jim Campbell previously stated. As noted in
the O'Neill article, if a search doesn't take you to the individual record
in the catalog (assuming the record exists), your library hasn't set up
this feature in WorldCat or your system doesn't support these kinds of
searches. Either problem is something that needs to be resolved on the
library's side of the search, not at OCLC.

I agree that being dumped at a library's catalog search screen isn't very
helpful from a staff users perspective. But from a patron perspective,
this may get them to that catalog search screen much more quickly than if
they were forced to find that resource on their own. 

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI




> 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?
> 
>