I’ve been following the thread about WiLL and other union catalogue activity with interest.  Comments and questions from Ken and others in the group about WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local are ones that we’d certainly like to address further.  We are working with a number of public libraries to surface their collections via WorldCat.org, an additional benefit we have been able to offer because of libraries’ participation in and contribution to UnityUK (the national network for resource sharing).  And last year at PLA, we announced our collaboration with SWRLS to offer WorldCat Local as a shared discovery tool, as Lynn has also mentioned. 

 

If there is interest in finding out more about the requirements for joining these services, I would be happy to set up a webinar, so that we can provide a little more insight.   Please send me an email and we’ll get back to you shortly with a date and time for a web presentation.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

In the South West we had WISDOM, a similar system to WILL, but the need to purchase a z39.50 server was a barrier to encouraging everyone to join, especially for small unitaries. In 2008 we realised that the aim of producing a regional catalogue was not going to be met and started to look for an alternative way forward.

 

As most SWRLS (South Western Regional Library Service) members were UnityUK users, their holdings were already loaded onto WorldCat and for the annual cost of £550 would be exposed in a WorldCat search, so it was decided that WorldCat was the way forward, but as Gary points out, it only lists holdings and not live records.

 

As a result, SWRLS are now working in partnership with OCLC to set up a WorldCat Local consortium. This will allow searches to be conducted which display findings and locations either in individual authority holdings, across the region or locations in the whole of WorldCat.

To assist the process, SWRLS is funding the implementation costs on behalf of its members and we are currently in the testing phase with 2 pilot sites that have different LMS suppliers, which will ensure the various LMS in place can operate successfully. Most of the 17 SW authorities are committed to joining and we aim to add them onto the WorldCat Local platform within 5 years.

The system has the advantage of being web based, so can take advantage of any online updates and does not require any special hardware.

 

If anyone would like further details please contact me off list and I will be happy to discuss.

 

 

 

 

 

There *is* a live link..though it’s true you have to click from Google Books, to OCLC to local OPAC (to get live holdings).

 

WiLL (like CAIRNS in Scotland I believe) was based on z39.50 so it was a ‘distributed architecture’ system (as far as library catalogue data was concerned) with ‘dynamic’ (real time) link to the local OPAC. Sounds good but the reality is it is slow and often a server would not respond. If Google relied on that approach we’d wait forever for a response. Hence the value of indexing *aggregated* data. This is how the new generation of library ‘Vertical  search’  applications (‘Discovery services’) work..

 

Aggregating data has useful spin offs too—much more effective recommender services for example

 

The  National Library of Sweden, CERN and several other libraries are putting their data out as ‘open data’ –indeed Europe (alas not the UK) seems to be taking a lead....What are the barriers stopping UK public libraries doing the same?

 

Ken

Ken Chad Consulting Ltd

Tel +44 (0)7788 727 845. Email: [log in to unmask]  www.kenchadconsulting.com

Skype: kenchadconsulting

 

 

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