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Hello! And welcome to our instructional resource for using WorldCat . . . the world’s largest
library catalog.
You might not be familiar with WorldCat and its usefulness. So let’s begin by telling
you what WorldCat is. WorldCat . . . is produced and maintained by the Ohio College Library
Center, commonly known as OCLC. It is an online catalog that serves as an electronic manifestation
of a global network of library content. You might now wonder, “What does that mean?”
Well, it means that through the wonders of the Internet . . . . someone looking for information
(such as yourself) . . . . will be able to search numerous library collections worldwide
for a specific resource desired. This means that you and I can search over 72,000 libraries
in 112 countries. Just imagine having access to over 258 million bibliographic records!
Continuing our instruction about WorldCat, we want to tell you what makes it unique and
valuable to library users and information seekers. Well, it provides access to various
resources in multiple formats! These resources are updated daily and it grants free access
to anyone who has an internet connection.
The interface features are easy to use and they are definitely user-friendly. Finally,
the search results identify the nearest library where you can access a physical copy of your
desired resource.
Once you have completed this training module, you will be introduced to the WorldCat platform.
This training module will provide you with instructions on how to navigate the various
features of the WorldCat platform. Also, you, the library user will be introduced to the
basics of searching for resources in WorldCat. This training module will provide information
on how to read a record resulting from a WorldCat search. And, we will guide you through the
steps to search for an item in WorldCat. After a successful search, you will be able to identify
the nearest library that owns that item.
This learning experience will be helpful to all library users. The ability to benefit
from this tool includes the general public as well as users of various different types
of libraries such as school libraries, public libraries, and academic libraries.
Finally, taking into account internet access, two special populations that will benefit
greatly from using WorldCat to meet their needs are distance education students and
remote library users.
In producing this training module, several technology-based tools and applications were
used. Captivate was used to voice over the slides that were created in PowerPoint. Search
engines and browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari, were used to access WorldCat
and capture the demonstrational images. And, also, the WorldCat interface allowed the user
to access the various resources. Finally, a mouse and a computer were needed to search
for items and read the search results.
We believe that by the end of this training module, users will be able to use WorldCat
to perform a basic, keyword search. Users will also be able to carry out an advanced
search to limit initial searches and be able to locate the specific item of choice. And,
finally, users will be able to identify the nearest, local library where a physical copy
of the desired item can be obtained.
So, let’s begin our search, shall we? First of all, to access WorldCat, you must start
with a search engine. For this tutorial, we will use Google. Type www.worldcat.org into
the web address box at the very top and click return.
This will take you to the WorldCat Basic Search Screen. You will see that there are five different
ways to search for your item. Since we will be searching for the book, The Hunger Games,
we will use the Book tab.
In the search books box, type the name of the book, Hunger Games.
This is the page that shows the results of our search. You will see that there are 368
results for The Hunger Games. To narrow our search, let’s go to the “Refine your Search
option on the left”. We can refine our search by selecting the author’s name;
and, for this search, we will choose Suzanne Collins.
Now, you will see that our results are only 81 books. In this case, our book is the first
one. Click on the title of the book.
Clicking on the title of the book takes us to the “Find a copy in the library page”.
You will see a list of libraries that have the item;
You can enter your location by zip code.
Here, we have entered an Alabama area zip code, 35487, just for demonstration purposes.
We are looking for the closest public library to zip code 35487. Scrolling down, we find
that the Tuscaloosa Public Library is the closest one. Clicking on the name of the library
will take you to the Library’s Catalog.
We can see the library’s catalog entry for our book, The Hunger Games, so we know the
Tuscaloosa Public Library has the book we are looking for.
WorldCat also has an advanced search option at the top, left-hand area of the screen.
Clicking on the advanced search option brings you to this advanced search page.
We are able to narrow our search by selecting different options. We have the option of selecting
from Accession number, Author, ISBN, ISSN, Journal Source, Keyword, Subject, or Title.
The more options you choose the more precise your search will be.
For this tutorial we will start by choosing “Title”.
In the box provided, type the name of the book, Hunger Games.
Our next selection will be “Author”.
We know the author is Collins, so we enter that into the box provided.
We also have the option to further narrow our search by year, but we will leave that
box blank for this tutorial. We will choose to further refine our search by type of “Audience”,
and we will select “any audience” as our option.
Since we know the book is Fiction, we will select that option.
“Format” is next on our menu of choices, and you can see that we have many options
to choose from!
Why don’t we look for an audiobook format this time?
The advanced search feature also gives us the option to select the “language” in
which we want our book.
Once we have selected English and are sure that our other search parameters of The Hunger
Games, written by Collins, for any audience, in Fictional content, as an audiobook are
correct, we will click the search button at the bottom right to see the results of our
search.
The results of our search appear on this page. Since we have used the advanced search feature,
we see that there are only THREE audiobooks for us to look at and that is a very good
and manageable result. We can also see that our audiobook is the first one on the list!
Let’s click on it and see where this takes us.
Here we see the image of the audiobook of The Hunger Games on CD. We can also see on
the second option that the audiobook is available at The Tuscaloosa Public Library.
Besides showing the libraries that will loan you the item, the book record will also show
you,in the bottom third of the screen, where you can buy the book.
You are also able to view details of the book record, and you can read reviews from readers
as well.
You are also able to view Tags, and other items that are similar to The Hunger Games.
WorldCat also allows you to find libraries near you. And this is very useful if you are
traveling and need to find the nearest library in the town or country you are visiting. Let’s
click on the “Find a Library” link.
This will take you to the “Find a library near you” page. You can either type the
name of the town, the zip or postal code, the province, or even the library’s name
if you know it.
Once again, for the purpose of this tutorial, we will enter Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the box
provided.
This slide shows the results for our search. We do not want a school library as shown in
these first boxes, so we will scroll down.
We find that the Tuscaloosa Public Library is the closest to our zip code. To find the
address of the library, click on the name; or you can also click the Website link, or
even the Online catalog link on the right.
Clicking on the name of the library will give us the address and phone number of the library.
You now should have all of the information you need to get your copy of The Hunger Games.
WorldCat also offers some extra options that are very helpful. On the top right hand of
the page containing the book’s record information, there are 5 links including the option to
print.
WorldCat offers you the option to cite or export the citations for the item you are
looking for; you are able to select from five citation formats. The citation can also be
sent to RefWorks or EndNote.
Or, you can even email the item.
You can share the information on Facebook or other sites.
And you can also copy the Permanent Link of the page.
Thank you for listening! We hope you have found this training module on WorldCat to
be of value. Now, go forth and begin your successful searching.