Why a Destination Site?
Visibility: The visibility of the smaller data subsets of 3 to 4 million currently made available by the Open WorldCat partner sites is mere kitten's play when measured against WorldCat's 82+ million available records. WorldCat.org makes the whole of WorldCat's database available to users on the web. It enables visibility for a library's entire physical and electronic collections, not just the popular items that are the focus of the WorldCat data subset used on Open WorldCat partner sites.
Stability: Instead of bibliographic data gaining visibility by being mired within search engine results, WorldCat.org gives bibliographic data a stable and standalone home.
One-Box/FRBRized Interface: OCLC calls the WorldCat.org search box its "main attraction" because it "allows Web users to search the entire WorldCat database with the method most familiar to them: simple keywords" (http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/dotorg/default.htm).
How are these keywords searched? Good question...OCLC has come up with its own relevancy ranking model that serves as a base for compiling search results. For the most part OCLC is keeping this algorithm private, but Chip Nilges has stated that title is given the most weight with other weighted factors including frequency of terms, number of library holdings, author names, and publication year (Hane 2006).
WorldCat.org Linking
Deep Linking to a library's OPAC is available if administrators set up this option in their FirstSearch administrative accounts. Libraries can also create links within their OPACs to go directly to WorldCat results. OCLC's Dynamic OPAC linking to open-Web Worldcat provides more detailed explanation of how libraries can link to WorldCat results and lists examples of libraries who have designed their OPACs to do so.
Return to Main Site | Return to WorldCat Site Home