[Web4lib] Links and public bibliography

[Weibel,Stu]

Many librarians will be familiar with OCLC's Open WorldCat Pilot and
the associated WorldCat Wiki Project.  The former is a major effort in
service of the goal of 'Weaving Libraries into the Web' and appears to
be making a difference.

The latter provides the means for users to enter supporting material
into WorldCat -- front matter and reviews in particular.

One of the difficulties for all web content providers is attracting
sufficient links for their content to bubble up so it can be seen in
searches.  We in the library community have particular difficulties in
this respect because we haven't had consistent and persistent means of
identifying our assets on the Web (ironic, given our longstanding use
of identifiers such as ISBNs).

We need to change this as a community.  I've elaborated on some of
these ideas in a couple of blog posts that I hope deserve some
attention and wider discussion.  Karen Schneider already commented that 
the OWC reviews are a black hole, and I suppose thats true just now.  
I hope that someday it might not be true, and whether its that forum 
or another, the notion that library materials should have a strong Web 
presence is important to our users and to us as a prefession

First Class Objects and the Currency of Linking
http://weibel-lines.typepad.com/weibelines/2006/02/first_class_obj.html

The New Cooperative Cataloging
http://weibel-lines.typepad.com/weibelines/2006/02/the_new_coopera.html

thanks

stu

Stuart Weibel

Senior Research Scientist
OCLC Research

Visiting Scholar
University of Washington iSchool