OCLC has begun a pilot program that enables Web users to add content to authoritative WorldCat records they locate through the Open WorldCat program. Available under the Details and Reviews tabs in the Open WorldCat interface, the pilot functionality allows anyone to quickly register and add content such as a table of contents, notes or a review. Open WorldCat users can edit the personal reviews they add to WorldCat records, and may also edit or correct information submitted by others that appears in the tables of contents and notes fields of the records. This pilot will continue into early 2006.
OCLC will first offer this service through the Open WorldCat program and later expand the service to the WorldCat database on the FirstSearch reference service.
Visit http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/open/usercontent/ to learn more about the pilot program.
Initial discussion of this new feature on Web4Lib has been thought-provoking, with such questions being raised as who will own (and can therefore redistribute) the user-contributed data, and can non-member libraries link to the reviews? I haven't had a lot of time to scrutinize the TOS so I don't have any answers to these and other probing questions, but I will say that this sort of social software is very popular and its inclusion in the Open WorldCat program won't hurt library PR in the least.
Here's an example of a newly revamped Open WorldCat record. The new display has several different tabs, Libraries, Details, Editions, and Reviews. I've used Clarkston's zip code as the location qualifier, and the Libraries tab is telling me that the only OCLC-member library near me that holds this title is UGA. The Details tab is pretty self-explanatory, and here you'll notice the ability to add TOCs and notes, one of the newer features. The Editions tab appears to be pulling different editions of the title from the WorldCat database, should you prefer an older edition. This is a very nifty, I think. Finally, in the Review tab you will notice that one user, "Minnie", has already reviewed this title. In the green box at the upper right, you will also notice the Buy It Now link that I've blogged about in the past.
As I said, I haven't had a lot of time to play with this or think about its usefulness for GPC specifically, but I wanted to bring it to your attention and would love to hear your thoughts.
1 comment:
I would imagine that those inclined to write book reviews for Open WorldCat will most likely be library staff. The gen pop will continue to write reviews for Amazon. Perhaps this will change if Open WorldCat becomes more mainstream.
And speaking of mainstream (or something that really isn't), it appears you still have to enter in Google ["find in a library" "mermaid chair"] or [site:worldcatlibraries.org mermaid chair] to get OWC results. Who knows to do this besides us? Are libraries to teach this to our patrons? I feel that time spent teaching patrons to search GIL@GPC and GIL UC is time better spent.
Nothing against OWC. It's cool but not yet patron friendly enough.
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