Want to help test the next version of the library catalog?

OCLC is beta testing WorldCat Discovery, the next version of our WorldCat library catalog


Currently OCLC is looking for graduate student and faculty feedback. (FYI We expect OCLC to have WorldCat Discovery ready for our library to use before summer 2015)

 

image 1208422 from freeimages.com

If you're interested, please respond to this call for help:

WorldCat Discovery Beta: Call for Help in Recruiting Assessment Volunteers

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As we continue to build WorldCat Local functionality into Discovery over the coming months we will use several methods to assess early designs and completed implementations, including interactive, task-based usability studies conducted remotely via WebEx.  Currently, we are recruiting both undergraduate and graduate students as well as library staff to participate in these studies.  If you'd be interested in helping us recruit students or have staff at your institution who can participate, either immediately or over the coming months, or want to know more about what that might involve, please contact either Colleen Way wayc@oclc.org or Arnold Arcolio, arcolioa@oclc.org.

Help page for the new catalog

Our doughty IT and tech services folk are still configuring the full WorldCat Local catalog.

But it's important to have some help documentation on hand. If nothing else it's prep for training workshops!

So a couple of us are looking at existing help guides and working on things for our own library. Our working group includes the DE librarian (aka tutorial maker extraordinaire), a director of marketing and outreach (sounds exalted but she's nice and very approachable), and the systems librarian (our catalog guy).  We've got access to a librarian who has been working reference at High Point University Libraries.  Would be nice to pull her into the working group, too.

Here are the WorldCat Local help pages that I liked best from other institutions:

• Tips, Tools, and Tutorials, Pepperdine University Libraries - so brief, so pithy. LOVE! IT!
• About WorldCat Local, University of Arizona Libraries - very descriptive, more detail, but still very readable.
• WorldCat Local Features, OCLC - this is a sales pitch written to librarians, but I like the mix of text and screenshots.

Speaking of training...we've got our  first year instruction coordinator planning some workshops. Yay!! I think that she's the most prolific presenter in our library (one year she taught 173 library instruction workshops).  I think we're going to start with sandbox sessions for library personnel before the rollout, then move out to other groups on campus.

New library catalog coming soon!

We're getting a new catalog this upcoming academic year.  It will be in the cloud. So not at all like this:

Creative Commons licensed photo from dfulmer (2010)

Moving towards the cloud...
You might already be familiar with the new catalog. Right now, when you click on our catalog, you see something called "UNC Library Express"

This is a version of OCLC's WorldCat Local, called quick start. We're currently transitioning to the more robust version. The new version should be ready this July (2012). You'll still be able to use our old catalog for awhile. I've been told it'll be still be available at least through fall 2012 and likely into spring 2013.

But starting this summer, the WorldCat search will be much more prominent on our library pages than the old catalog search.

Here's what a WorldCat Local search looks like:

I'm sure the roll out will come with official messages since a new catalog is a big deal in libraryland.


Public-facing improvements with WorldCat Local

• Search books, e-books, and videos in our library AND in other OCLC libraries.  Greensboro, TALA (academic libraries in the Triad), other libraries in the UNC system, and the world  - already active!
• Links into e-books and online articles - coming soon!
• Easier InterLibrary Loan - "Request item" links fill in the request for you - already active!
• Share - post records to Facebook and other social media sites - already active!
• Lists - create your own book lists to share (or not) - already active!

To name just a few. 

There are some cool new features. But every catalog is different. I'm one of the old-school types who will miss call number searching.  So I'm glad that a) OCLC is constantly developing WorldCat and b) we'll have our old catalog for awhile.


Big changes on the back end...
WorldCat Local is an online search hosted by OCLC. It relies on catalog records stored by libraries locally on their own servers.

WorldShare Management uses the same search interface as WorldCat Local, but it really goes into the cloud.  Libraries no longer store catalog records on their own servers (or do lots of other behind the scenes ILS work locally).  It's web-based. This is the goal we're aiming for by the end of academic year 2012-2013.

Want more info?

• WorldCat Local Features
• Support for WorldCat Local
• Discovery through WorldCat Local: An in-depth demonstration - webinar recording, requires a name and email to view

FYI, these are librarian and library staff resources.

Disclaimer
Info is based on notes from an OCLC site visit, multiple webinars and in-person meetings, a fair amount of online searching, and of course the expertise of our systems librarian and many others who work hard providing the resources that I rely upon as a public services librarian.

This post reflects my own PoV only.

Dates mentioned here are based on the info currently available to me and they are subject to change.