[Web4lib] For informal cites to friends and acquaintancesindiscussing a particular catalog entry, how do you cite, format the URL fora particular Boston Public Library catalog entry?...

[Sneary,Alice]

As mentioned, WorldCat.org provides a library-focused alternative to
Amazon, etc. for discussing titles online.

Each material item in WorldCat has a (permanent, persistent) permalink
URL that is designed to be as short as possible and make it easy for
librarians or end-users to cite specific titles in libraries out on the
open Web. 

A quick romp through all the ways to link in to WorldCat and help
connect Web users to their local library:
http://www.worldcat.org/links/default.jsp


Thank you.
Alice

Alice Sneary
OCLC
614-764-6016
snearya at oclc.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Marcie Pierson [mailto:Mpierson at cwmars.org] 
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 10:09 AM
To: web4lib
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] For informal cites to friends and
acquaintancesindiscussing a particular catalog entry, how do you
cite,format the URL fora particular Boston Public Library catalog
entry?...

Perhaps I'm making this too simplistic, but there's always tinyurl.com
You paste in a really long URL and it generates a tiny one. Not one
especially easy to remember, alas, but it won't be long enough to break
over lines in email and it'll stay persistent (i.e. there are not
expiration dates).
 
Also, sometimes sharing the search steps involved is easier than using
the URL.
 
Marcie Pierson
Reference Librarian
Grafton Public Library
35 Grafton Common
Grafton, MA 01519
508-839-4649
508-839-7726 FAX

________________________________

From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Thomas Dowling
Sent: Fri 3/13/2009 8:04 AM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] For informal cites to friends and acquaintances
indiscussing a particular catalog entry, how do you cite,format the URL
fora particular Boston Public Library catalog entry?...



On 03/12/2009 02:51 PM, don warner saklad wrote:
> a.
> For informal cites to friends and acquaintances in discussing a 
> particular catalog entry, how do you cite, format the URL for a 
> particular Boston Public Library catalog entry?


Having looked at these ugly URLs a couple of times now, I don't think
you're going to get this pared down to something friendly you can easily
share [a serious failing of the catalog design, IMO].  Factoring in the
possibility that your friends and acquaintances might access other
Boston-area libraries, I'd bail out on citing BPL catalog URLs entirely.
 Instead, I'd find the item in Worldcat and just share that URL (minus
any query string parameters if you prefer):

  http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122291427

If you haven't already configured a Boston ZIP code, pop one in and BPL
holdings will be near the top.


--
Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu


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