Thing #26: Getting Social with WorldCat.org

In 2006, OCLC introduced WorldCat.org, a free destination Web site where anyone can use familiar keyword searches to explore the complete WorldCat database. Since that time OCLC has been adding lots of neat new functionality to the site, including many social networking features that make it easy to spread the word about library materials and services! And that, my friends, is the focus of Thing #26: Getting Social with WorldCat.org

To take full advantage of WorldCat.org’s social networking features, the first thing you need to do is create a free account.

Create an Account

Creating a WorldCat account is fast and easy, and requires only an e-mail address. On top of the ability to search many libraries at once, a WorldCat account lets you:

• Create a public profile that lets other WorldCat users know something about you and your interests.


• Build and maintain public or private lists of books, videos and many other kinds of items owned by libraries.


• Add information to WorldCat records, such as factual notes, tables of contents, and ratings and reviews.

To create a WorldCat.org account go to http://www.worldcat.org/ and click on the “Create a free account” link. If you prefer, you can go directly to the Create an Account page. Select your user name and password, enter an email address, accept the terms of service, and you’re set!

Create a WorldCat.org Profile

In general social networking services encourage users to create personal profiles, and WorldCat.org is no exception. Once you’ve created a WorldCat.org account, consider filling in some profile data. Here’s how:

1. If you are not signed in, do so by clicking the "Sign In to WorldCat" link on the right-hand side of the WorldCat menu bar at the top of any WorldCat page.


2. On the left-hand side of the menu bar, hover over "My WorldCat" and select "Edit My Profile."


3. Fill out your profile. You can provide as much or as little information as you wish. You can optionally upload a picture that will serve as your user avatar. (Please upload only those images you have the right to distribute and that are in line with WorldCat's Terms and Conditions.)


4. Click the "Save Profile" button at the bottom of the page. A message will indicate you have successfully modified your profile.


5. Check that the privacy setting for your profile is what you want it to be. On the menu bar, click the "My WorldCat" menu and select "Privacy Settings." Adjust the setting, if necessary, and click the "Save Changes" button.

To search for other people who have created a WorldCat profile, hover over “Search” on the menu bar and select “Search for Contacts.” You can search by User Name or by First or Last Name. Can you find my profile if I tell you my User Name is sknisely?

Favorite Libraries

When you conduct a search in WorldCat.org and pull up the detailed record for an item of interest, WorldCat.org attempts to determine your location based on the IP address of your ISP (Internet service provider) in order to show you nearby libraries that own the item. (You may need to scroll down the detailed record page a bit to see the list of libraries.)

You can also manually specify your location by entering your zip code or, if you have a favorite library that you always want to see at the top of the list if it owns an item, click on the “Add to favorites” link to the right of the library’s name. (If you aren’t already logged in to your WorldCat.org account, you will be prompted to do so before you can “favorite” a library.)



Note: A library’s holdings will only be displayed in WorldCat.org if the library has added its holdings to WorldCat via one of the many OCLC services available for that purpose, e.g. CatExpress, Connexion, Batch Processing. A subscription to the WorldCat database on the FirstSearch reference service is also required for Web exposure of holdings via WorldCat.org. Nebraska libraries are covered by the statewide FirstSearch base package subscription, which includes access to WorldCat.

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Ok, now that we have preliminaries out of the way, let's move on to some of the other useful and potentially "social" things you can do with your WorldCat.org account.

Create Lists

Once you have a WorldCat.org account you can create and save lists of books, DVDs, and other kinds of material owned by libraries. You can keep your lists private or make them public. Lists can serve all types of purposes. I’ve listed a few examples below. Can you think of others?

• New titles added to your library collection.
  
  Example: May 2009 – New Books (created by the University of Washington Art Library) See how they link to this list from their web site!


• Genre-specific book lists.
  
  Example: Vampire Novels for Young Adults (created by the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District Young Adult Materials Selector)


• Books related to a particular program.
  
  Example: Washington Reads (created by the Washington State Library in support of their statewide program to promote reading)

Creating lists is easy. To create a list first and then add items, select the ”Create lists” link on the left side of the WorldCat.org home page or the “Create” link in the “Lists” section of your profile page.

This takes you to the “Create New List” page. Type in a list name, set your list privacy to “Viewable by Anyone (Public)” or “Viewable Only by Me (Private),” and click on “Create New List.”

You can also create a list from a WorldCat.org search results page or from a detailed record page.
To create a list from a search results page, select one or more items to add to your list. Select “[New List]” from the “Save to” drop-down menu that appears above the result list and click “Save.”

You will now be prompted to create a list. (Of course, you can also save items to a previously created list, which will also appear in the drop-down “Save to” menu.)

From a detailed record screen click on the “Add to list” link. Save your item to a previously created list or choose the “Add item to new list” option.

For more help creating lists watch a 3-minute YouTube video on WorldCat Lists

Finding Lists

So how do people find your lists? Well, if they are a geeky librarian like me, they can use the WorldCat.org “Search for Lists” functionality.

To do this, hover over “Search” on the left-hand side of the top menu bar and select “Search for Lists.” Type in one or more keywords that you might expect to appear in the name or description of a list of interest. Click on “Search.”

In the example below I’m searching for “book club,” hoping to retrieve lists of titles being read by other book groups!

If I find a list I really like, I can click on the “Watch This List” button located beneath the list title. This adds the list to the “List Watching” area of my profile, allowing me to track updates to the list from within WorldCat.org.

Chances are most non-librarians won’t go to WorldCat.org to search for lists though, nor will they return to WorldCat.org to check for updates to lists. Therefore, if you want to get the word out about a list—whether you created it to reflect a personal interest or on behalf of your library—you will want to take advantage of some of the social features built in to WorldCat.org. These features let you get information to users at sites they already frequent, as opposed to making them come to WorldCat.org!

Share Lists (via email, RSS, bookmarks)

One thing that makes WorldCat.org social is the ability to easily share user-created content with others via email, RSS, and bookmarks.

To access your list of lists, hover over “My WorldCat” on the menu bar and select “My Lists.” Click on the title of the list you’d like to share.

Email - When viewing your own list you will have the option of clicking on a “Share” link at the top of the page to send your friends an email that includes a link to your list. Your list must be public for this to work.

• RSS - When other users view one of your public lists (or when you view someone else’s public list) they will have the option of subscribing to it as an RSS feed in order to monitor changes to it. All they have to do is click on the “RSS FEED” button at the top of the page. This retrieves the AddThis “Subscribe to Feed” page, which links to a variety of free Web services that can monitor RSS feeds. After selecting one of the displayed services, users can either sign in to the service to subscribe to the feed or create a new user account.


• Bookmark – Users viewing a public list can also click on the Bookmark button to add the list to popular social bookmarking/networking services they have accounts with, such as Delicious, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. This is a quick and easy way people (or libraries) can share content they find useful with many other individuals.

Additional WorldCat Tools

• WorldCat Search Widget - Put a WorldCat search box on your Web site or blog! Or, if you can swing it, encourage other people or organizations in your community to put a WorldCat search box on THEIR Web site or blog, along with a testimonial about your library’s ability to provide community members with access to the material listed in WorldCat, whether owned locally or not!
  
  To add a WorldCat search box to a Web site all you have to do is go to the WorldCat Search Box page, copy the code for the search box you want, and then past it into the code for your Web page.
  
  If you’d like a wee challenge, test this out in your Thing #26 blog post. When composing your post, just remember you’ll need to temporarily switch to “Edit Html” mode in order to paste in the code for the search box. After doing this you can switch back to “Compose” mode for the rest of your post.


• Create a WorldCat Link - When you’re writing about books or other types of material that can be found in libraries, don’t link to commercial third-party sites; link to WorldCat.org to promote libraries in general and to connect people to local libraries in particular!
  
  There are lots of ways to link to WorldCat, and lots of situations in which it would be appropriate to do so. I’ve given some examples below, but I’m sure you can think of others!
  
  
• Whenever you mention a book on your Web site or in a blog post, link to the WorldCat.org detailed record for the item - On a detailed record screen click on “Permalink,” which appears to the right of the “Bookmark & Share” button, to retrieve the URL you will want to use to link your readers to the record.
  
  Example: Check out Diary of a Wimpy Kid at your local library today!
  
  
• Link to lists – Create lists on WorldCat.org and link to them from your Web site or blog. Even if your library holdings don’t show up in WorldCat, you can still compile and link to a list of titles recently added to your collection! Or create subject bibliographies on topics of interest to your community, featuring books owned by your library!
  
  Example: The Nebraska Library Commission owns and/or recommends a number of books on gaming in libraries.
  
  
• Link to real-time WorldCat.org search results with embedded search terms – Help your patrons stay up-to-date by pointing them to the latest material on a particular topic or by a particular author. Follow these easy instructions to create links that generate WorldCat search results for a single subject keyword, multiple subject keywords, author keywords, or title keywords. You can even combine indices to help limit and refine your search results if necessary.
  
  Example: Check out 2009 books on food allergies! (If our library doesn’t own a title you’re interested in, we’ll be glad to request it for you through ILL!)
  
  
• Facebook Application – Does your library have a Facebook page? Or do you promote libraries on your personal Facebook page? If so, why not add the WorldCat Facebook Application and encourage your friends to do the same!
  
  Once you’ve logged in to your Facebook account, click on the “Applications” button at the left end of the Chat bar at the bottom of any Facebook page. In the menu that appears, click on the “Browse More Applications” link. Search for the WorldCat application and add it to your page.

Assignment

1. If you don’t already have one, create a free WorldCat.org account. Don’t forget to edit your profile!
   
   
2. Perform a search in WorldCat.org in order to identify an item owned by a nearby library. “Favorite” that library.
   
   If your own library’s holdings don’t show up in WorldCat.org, what library did you favorite? How could this be used by you or your patrons?
   
   
3. Do one or more of the following:
   
   
• Create a list…
  
  
• Search for a list created by someone else and “Watch” it…
  
  
• If you have an account on an RSS feed aggregator, subscribe to a list RSS feed…
  
  
• Bookmark a list (or detailed record) in order to share it via one of the social network/bookmark sites supported by AddThis…
  
  
• Review or rate an item you know something about…
  
  
• Create a link in your blog post to the detailed record for an item, a list, or real-time search results…
  
  
• Add a WorldCat.org search widget to your blog…
  
  
4. Write a blog post discussing your experience with WorldCat.org and brainstorm ways a library could use it.