OCLC WorldCat.org: A Useful Cataloging Tool

OCLC's web based interface to WorldCat, WorldCat.org, is becoming an interesting resource. I think it is a tool that catalogers and metadata librarians can use in creative ways. For example, one of the catalogers I work with searches for serials records in WorldCat.org before using Connexion. He likes the clean, simple interface and the fact that you can see other libraries' serials holdings. Another cataloger I work with suggested looking for call numbers from other libraries when the master record in WorldCat is missing one. Because it links to member libraries' online catalogs it's a good way to find bibliographic data beyond the master record. Recently, I found a record missing the call number and LC subject headings completed in a library's local catalog. WorldCat.org would be an even better cataloging tool if it had a MARC display. So try adding it to your list of web based cataloging applications.

UPDATE: Someone from OCLC was kind enough to clue me in to the fact that WorldCat.org is directly accessible through Connexion. They added this functionality last year. When a record is displayed in Connexion, go to the View menu and choose "Find in a Library." WorldCat.org will open in your default browser to that record. Very cool!

Comments

[arkham]

I haven't tried using WorldCat in my cataloging. Too bad there isn't (yet) a way to integrate the basic cataloging tool (Connexion) with the useful aspects of WorldCat.

[Monica Berger]

I use WorldCat every day to support tech services work. For example, pub patterns are the bane of every serials person and I can get great data by looking at other opacs.

[Lois Reibach]

You can now get part of this functionality through Connexion. Under View, Find in a library, it will send a list of holdings sorted by distance from your home library. If these OPACS have been linked, then it is one more click to get into the local record.

I personally started relying heavily on searching through Worldcat the last year that OCLC charged for searches, when we were heavy into a recon project that mostly returned zero hits but we had to search. For the most part I still use the searching methods I developed that year, rather than switching to Connexion.

[Minerva]

I use WorldCat.org everyday to compare call numbers. This is really useful for government documents. Unfortunately, I doubt OCLC will be adding a MARC display. I'd settle for providing page numbering, first.

[Lorna Young]

WorldCat.org is freely available. Why would OCLC want to provide a MARC display for it? Personally I think it would be great, but they'd lose subscribers to Connexion and their other products. No sense paying for the records if you can get them for free. Part of what you pay for with Connexion or CatExpress is the ability to download in MARC format. If WorldCat.Org allowed downloading of the record even in a .txt format, some systems could import it.
OCLC is a consortium, but it's as much of a business as any other vendor.