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IF the user is coming from a recognized on-campus IP, you can configure WorldCat to give the user an ILL link to your library too. At least if you use ILLiad, maybe if you use something else (esp if your ILL software can accept OpenURLs too!). I haven't yet found any good way to do this if the user is off-campus (ezproxy not a good solution, how do we 'force' the user to use ezproxy for worldcat.org anyway?). But in any event, I agree with Dave that worldcat.org isn't a great interface even if you DO get it to have an ILL link in an odd place. I think we can do better. Which is really the whole purpose of Umlaut as an institutional link resolver, giving the user a better screen for "I found this citation somewhere else, library what can you do to get it in my hands asap?" Still wondering why Umlaut hasn't gotten more interest from people, heh. But we're using it here at JHU, and NYU and the New School are also using it. Jonathan Walker, David wrote: >> It seems like the more productive path if the goal of a user is >> simply to locate a copy, where ever it is held. >> > > But I don't think users have *locating a copy* as their goal. Rather, I think their goal is to *get their hands on the book*. > > If I discover a book via COINs, and you drop me off at Worldcat.org, that allows me to see which libraries own the book. But, unless I happen to be affiliated with those institutions, that's kinda useless information. I have no real way of actually getting the book itself. > > If, instead, you drop me off at your institution's link resolver menu, and provide me an ILL option in the event you don't have the book, the library can get the book for me, which is really my *goal*. > > That seems like the more productive path, IMO. > > --Dave > > ================== > David Walker > Library Web Services Manager > California State University > http://xerxes.calstate.edu > ________________________________________ > From: Code for Libraries [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Keays [[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 8:43 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] WorldCat as an OpenURL endpoint ? > > On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 3:47 PM, Jonathan Rochkind <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > >> The trick here is that traditional library metadata practices make it _very >> hard_ to tell if a _specific volume/issue_ is held by a given library. And >> those are the most common use cases for OpenURL. >> >> > > Yep. That's true even for individual library's with link resolvers. OCLC is > not going to be able to solve that particular issue until the local > libraries do. > > > >> If you just want to get to the title level (for a journal or a book), you >> can easily write your own thing that takes an OpenURL, and either just >> redirects straight to worldcat.org on isbn/lccn/oclcnum, or actually does >> a WorldCat API lookup to ensure the record exists first and/or looks up on >> author/title/etc too. >> >> > > I was mainly thinking of sources that use COinS. If you have a rarely held > book, for instance, then OpenURLs resolved against random institutional > endpoints are going to mostly be unproductive. However, a "union" catalog > such as OCLC already has the information about libraries in the system that > own it. It seems like the more productive path if the goal of a user is > simply to locate a copy, where ever it is held. > > > >> Umlaut already includes the 'naive' "just link to worldcat.org based on >> isbn, oclcnum, or lccn" approach, functionality that was written before the >> worldcat api exists. That is, Umlaut takes an incoming OpenURL, and provides >> the user with a link to a worldcat record based on isbn, oclcnum, or lccn. >> >> > > Many institutions have chosen to do this. MPOW, however, represents a > counter-example and do not link out to OCLC. > > Tom > >