Open WorldCat searching

[Corey Murata]

I've been playing around with Open WorldCat for a month or so, and in my
laziness I've been fiddling with ways to search it that are faster, easier,
tastes great and less filling.
I've fiddled enough, now I want to see what others think.  I've got three
different working ideas (I don't know that they rise to the level of
'solutions') at:
http://faculty.washington.edu/murata/worldcat/

The first is a simple web form that does a URL rewrite so you don't have to
type in 'site:worldcatlibraries.org' (that's how lazy I am).  It uses a
small Perl script, though it could also be done in PHP.
The second adds a WorldCat plugin to the Mozilla/Firefox search bar.  It
works but because the syntax you can use for these search plugins is fairly
limited, I can't make it search Google directly, instead it sends the query
to a Perl script, which rewrites it (just like the script used by the web
form) then sends you off to run the search.  It works, but it takes an extra
step that I wish it didn't have to.
The third was actually the easiest of the three to set up.  It uses a
customized search in the Google Deskbar (not the new Desktop Search tool but
the old Deskbar).  As long as you're living in a Windows world, this is a
nice option because it doesn't care what your default browser is.

So, if you're so inclined, take a look at it and let me know what you think.

Cm
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Corey Murata
Business Computer-based Services Librarian
Foster Business Library
University of Washington
Box 353224
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-4360
murata at u.washington.edu