Special Saturday Update

I had the day off yesterday...

And speaking of my day off, I did what all librarians do with a free Friday - I cataloged my home collection of books. For real.

You find yourself wondering, how do libraries catalog? Or, how to libraries know if a book is in another library?

We use a tool called Worldcat.

Worldcat is short for Worldwide Catalog. It is a web resource that allows users to browse a single catalog interface, then see which libraries have the item in collection.

Items don't even have to be books. Movies, sound recordings, articles and serials can all be searched for.

The Charlotte public library system has made Worldcat available to patrons- and its easy to find, here's how:

On the PLCMC homepage, choose the Research/Homework tab in the top middle

and Worldcat is the last option.



Worldcat is available for use from home- just provide your library barcode number when prompted and you'll on your way. Computers in the library automatically pull up Worldcat without needing to add your barcode. This also works with laptops in the branches using the public wifi.

If you do not live in Charlotte, or don't have a library card, you can still harness the awesome power of Worldcat- with Open Worldcat.

Open Worldcat can be found at worldcat.org/. That's it- no library card required. Open Worldcat has less cataloging information, but will still show you items in libraries near you, and provide a link to the library's online catalog. Generally, from there you can find cataloging information.

You can read more about Open Worldcat and see more links by visiting my website about it. Go to www.devinsingley.com/worldcat. There, I show a comparison between the full and open versions of the same book, and provide links to more Worldcat resources.