At the time of this writing, the central index associated with WorldCat Local includes nearly a half billion items (over half of these being articles), with content sourced from journal publishers, article citation aggregators, and the WorldCat database. Updates to content, ranging from daily to annually, are provided by publishers; once provided, such content is loaded and indexed within a few days at most. Article citation content is sourced from four major pools. First, journal publisher agreements with Springer, Taylor and Francis, Wiley, IGI Global, Nature, Sage, Emerald, and others contribute over seven million records directly into the WorldCat Local central index. Second, article citation aggregators such as ArticleFirst, Medline, ERIC, British Library Inside Serials, JSTOR, OAIster, and Elsevier provide over 100 million citations open to search to all WorldCat Local customers. Third, the WorldCat database contains nearly four million additional article citation records. As noted in a 2010 press release, readers are likely aware that OCLC is transitioning away from serving as a host and reseller of commercially published content and actively engaged in publisher partnerships to increase content with the WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local platforms.² Reflecting this transition, a fourth major pool of content is sourced from direct agreements with database providers, both OCLC-hosted and licensed databases (other than ArticleFirst, referenced above), and other database providers, such as MLA, Ebsco, Gale, and H. W. Wilson. Through agreements with OCLC, these providers enable some of their subscription database content to be indexed and included in WorldCat Local's central index, and this content is available for those WorldCat Local customers who also subscribe to those databases (through whichever platform the library chooses to subscribe). Content from the first three pools is discoverable for all WorldCat Local customers; content from the final pool is scaled and included in the discovery experience for those libraries that maintain matching subscriptions to these third-party databases.

At the time of this writing, content from over 180 directly licensed databases and collections (from over 61,000 journals) are incorporated into the central preaggregated index, some or all of which are available for search and discovery, dependent as mentioned on local library subscriptions. A regularly updated list of these databases is available at the OCLC WorldCat Local website (which also includes a list of database searchable via federated search, described toward the end of this chapter). The local library has control over which particular (and eligible) databases can be included as part of a WorldCat Local default search. As with other discovery services, OCLC continues to work with new providers to expand the coverage of its central index. OCLC indicated that it has recently signed agreements that will add content from another eighty-plus databases and collections, adding significant citation-level content. The article citation records in WorldCat Local provide to WorldCat Local subscribers discoverability of 75 percent or more of journal content from over 1,000 licensed databases and collections of importance to libraries, enabled through the greater integration of the WorldCat knowledge base with WorldCat Local. In addition to commercial article-level content, WorldCat includes content, searchable by all customers, from various well-known open-access repositories, such as materials from OAIster, mentioned above, and HathiTrust. Over 4.5 million e-book metadata records from mass digitization providers such as Google (described in more detail later), major aggregators (such as NetLibrary, ebrary, and Ingram), and additional commercial e-book publishers are also included. In addition, at the time of this writing, OCLC is working with over a dozen partners on expanding the functionality of the WorldCat knowledge base to facilitate sharing article content. In part, these efforts will build upon the discovery of additional large volumes of electronic content through the WorldCat Local discovery service and are part of OCLC's development of Web scale subscription and license management services and workflow.

WorldCat Local single-search access: Database list

www.oclc.org/worldcatlocal/overview/metasearch/dblist

WorldCat Local works with an institution's proxy server (including the EZproxy proxy server, marketed by OCLC) to enable offsite authenticated access to licensed resources. WorldCat Local works with the library's link resolver and the WorldCat knowledge base as a broker to licensed content; customers must have library holdings record information for their serials titles in WorldCat. OCLC has an eSerials Holdings service (free with OCLC cataloging membership) to facilitate adding and updating library holdings information (from an A–Z journals list or a link resolver database) to the WorldCat catalog.

Libraries can incorporate local resources into WorldCat Local by having their local content (records) within the WorldCat catalog. Indeed, a vast number of libraries already have their catalog holdings information within the WorldCat database. However, depending on local practices and priorities, records and holdings information in the library's local catalog may be more complete, accurate, or recent. If the local library's records are not already in WorldCat, they are not part of the WorldCat Local discovery experience; such records (and the library's OCLC symbol) must be present within the records in the WorldCat master catalog. Libraries can request a one-time (free) batchload of current ILS records into the WorldCat database, which will apply necessary updating and reindexing of MARC records. Local ILS records must have an indexed OCLC number. On an ongoing basis, if a record is cataloged in OCLC by the local institution, it becomes visible in WorldCat Local in real time. Nightly updates of library holdings records are performed. Apart from traditional catalog records, content from other OAI-PMH–compliant local library repositories can be harvested, with the metadata subsequently crosswalked to MARC, the underlying schema for the WorldCat database. OCLC provides a WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway tool for CONTENTdm and other OAI-PMH–compliant digital repositories, facilitating the import and publishing of CONTENTdm records into WorldCat, at which point they become searchable and exposed to all customers through WorldCat and WorldCat Local. Taken in full, the WorldCat Local preaggregated central index is one unified index encompassing both the preindexed remote publisher and aggregator content and local content sourced from the local library and other OCLC member libraries.

By default, a WorldCat Local search is a keyword search against a majority of indexed MARC record fields. At present, WorldCat Local does not search full text, though OCLC has indicated that it intends to pursue rights to index full text and enable full-text searching. OCLC's relevancy ranking includes search term proximity measures on terms appearing in the title, subject, and author fields; other MARC fields are also included in the search but given less weight. Currency also factors into relevancy, as well as the number of institutions holding an item (for physical holdings). By default, results are sorted and returned by library and relevancy. However, a library can choose to remove the weighting of its local holdings from the relevancy calculations and have items returned based strictly on relevance (and regardless of whether the library locally owns that item or not). At present, some level of deduplication is applied to records. For records within the first content pool as described above (available to all WorldCat Local libraries), records are deduped upon loading. At the time of this writing, OCLC is currently evaluating potential methods for applying deduping processes to the other content pools (those requiring local library subscriptions).

WorldCat Local can be envisioned as a localized, customized version of the WorldCat catalog. The system interface is currently available in six languages (Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish). Many elements from the parent interface, such as the search features, social tools, and WorldCat user accounts, are present in WorldCat Local. Using the parent WorldCat template as a start, WorldCat Local customers have several “look and feel” interface elements they can customize to help set this service apart from the parent catalog. Customers can define the background color scheme and customize the WorldCat Local menu bar and search box with their library name and logo and branding elements. The local library can add its own custom hyperlinks within the header present on the default search page and returned results page. As with each discovery tool profile in this issue of Library Technology Reports, the description that follows represents a typical instance of WorldCat Local, but many elements can be customized by the local library.

By default, WorldCat Local provides a single search box (figure 1); a link to an advanced search option is provided and available from both the initial search screen and the returned results pages. For the full version of WorldCat Local, libraries can have up to four selectable collection “tiers” for a user to search; the first three are defined by the library, and the last is the always-present global tier of WorldCat libraries (called Libraries Worldwide in the search box pull-down menu). In a typical instance, many customers may choose to use two tiers—the tier coinciding with their own local institutional holdings (including the article-level content as described above) and the Libraries Worldwide tier, which expands the search to include the holdings of other libraries worldwide as represented in the parent WorldCat catalog. Intermediate tiers, if the library chooses to utilize additional tiers, may, for example, include holdings of a consortium of which the library is a member (or a group the library would like to set as an intermediate tier for other purposes, for example, interlibrary loan). WorldCat Local “quick start” customers can utilize up to three tiers—the local institution collection, a group view of other libraries that may be on the same ILS (if such is the case for that particular library system), and the global view of all WorldCat libraries. Regardless of which collection tier the user chooses to search, local institutional holdings will appear toward the top of the returned results (assuming that the default sort option, described below, is based on library and relevance). The advanced search option (figure 2) allows a user to enter search terms for up to three user-selected record fields; input a range of years to search; select which formats to return (such as book, article, sound recording, journal/magazine/newspaper, etc.); select an audience (juvenile or non-juvenile); and choose to return results in only a particular language. In addition, users can select content type to return (fiction, nonfiction, biography, thesis/dissertation). Most of these advanced search options are also offered via faceted searching, described shortly.

WorldCat Local does not require offsite users to authenticate to search the service. The local library configures authentication requirements and at what point users may be asked to authenticate, typically either before they conduct an initial search or when they try to retrieve a full-text item. For content drawn from some of the pools of specific local library database subscriptions (as described above), an unauthenticated user might, prior to the initial search being executed, get the message saying, “Some of the information that you've requested can only be displayed to authorized users” and providing an option to authenticate. As mentioned above, WorldCat Local works with typical library proxy servers to provision offsite access.

Once a user has conducted the search, returned results occupy most of the screen. A Refine Your Search pane, providing faceted navigation, described below, occupies the left side of the screen. Users can choose to sort results by Library and Relevancy or by Relevancy Only, as well as by author, title, and date. Icons exist for various item types, such as books, audiobooks, articles, and so on. For books (figure 3), initial returned information includes title, authors, language, publisher (name and city), and publication date.

If a library has a subscription for Syndetic Solutions enrichment information (see below), book cover images, if a match exists, display within the brief results view. A real-time status call is not made within the brief results view; such a call is made in the detail view, described below. An indication of whether the local library owns the item is displayed within the brief list of results. A View All Editions and Formats link retrieves a listing of all formats for that item, such as different language editions, audiobook editions, and so on. Typical information provided for article content (figure 4) includes article title, author, journal title, publication information (publisher, city, date), and the source database for the content.

Faceted navigation is provided in WorldCat Local through a Refine Your Search pane (figure 5). Facet categories include author, format (book, article, sound recording, etc.), year, content (biography, thesis/dissertation, etc.), audience (juvenile, non-juvenile), language, and topic. The top five choices for each category are displayed, followed by a Show More option to expand the list of choices for that facet category (if more choices exist). Users can make one facet choice per category (e.g., a single year—and not a range—in the Year facet category, though a range of years can be specified within the advanced search mode). As additional choices from different categories are made, a Search Results breadcrumb trail displays at the top, allowing a user to backtrack (and thus expand the results list) to earlier steps of the refinement. For all facet choices, the number of matching items for that choice is displayed in parentheses.

Clicking on a title or cover image invokes the detail view of a record in the same browser window (figure 6). Given that the user is now at the single-record level, the refinement pane disappears. For books, assuming a local library subscription to Syndetic Solutions’ enrichment content exists (and an item match occurs), information such as book cover images, reviews, first chapters, and tables of contents may be displayed within the detailed record view. If a library does not subscribe to an enrichment service, evaluative content is still available within WorldCat Local and included with all subscriptions to the service. This includes over thrity-four million pieces of evaluative content, such as millions of book cover images, tables of contents, summaries, and reviews and ratings, as well as other evaluative data. A variety of additional information is provided via collapsible headings appearing below the basic citation-level information. First is a Find a Copy in the Library heading, which makes a real-time status call and provides location, status, and call number information for a local library copy (if owned) and provides a link to request or hold the item (whose functionality in part relies on local policies and systems in place). Also available is a listing of other libraries that own the item, retrieving matches to nearby libraries possessing the item (and providing a link to request the item via interlibrary loan). A Details heading provides more base-level information about the book, such as material type (e.g., biography, primary school), ISBN, physical size, and so on. Some libraries may opt to include a Buy It heading, which displays the prices and contextual links to online booksellers offering the item. A Reviews heading offers user-contributed reviews and can include reviews from venues such as Amazon, weRead, and Goodreads. A Tags heading provides user-contributed tags, if any have been contributed. A Similar Items heading provides contextually linked related subject headings, as well as publicly viewable user lists (if any) that include the book (described in more detail below).

The detailed information view for an article (figure 7) provides many of the same collapsible information headings as a book, though some of these are not as relevant to items at the article level (such as user reviews and tags). If the library receives the associated journal in print, location information and holdings information are provided. How a link appears for access to the full text varies depending on the source of the article as described in the content section above. In many cases, a heading Find a Copy Online includes a Get It, Check for Electronic Resources, or similarly named link that connects with the library's link resolver to broker a connection to the full text. Alternatively, in some instances a direct link to the full text may exist in the record. Recently, OCLC introduced a knowledge base, as referenced above, which provides link-resolution functionality built into WorldCat Local. With this functionality, a library can synchronize its holdings information to provide more seamless one-click access to an item.

WorldCat Local offers a variety of export options (figure 8). A check box is present near each item in the brief results view; users can select particular items or choose Select All. Selected items can be saved to a list (figure 9)—a newly defined and named list, an already existing list, a Things I Recommend list, a Things I Own list, or a Things to Check Out list. A user must have a WorldCat user account and be logged in to save items to a list. Users can choose to make lists viewable by anyone or designate a list as private. The list offers a shopping cart view, complete with book cover images (if available), citation information, and various export options. Users can choose to export citations as HTML, rich text, CSV, or the citation tag format RIS and can choose to export to citation management programs, such as RefWorks or EndNote. Users can choose from five citation styles (APA, Chicago, etc.). Users can choose to print the list or share the list with up to five e-mail addresses. Users can also monitor changes to any public list by subscribing to an RSS feed. Users can add tags and notes to their lists. In addition to marked items, users can choose to save searches. Apart from the shopping cart approach, users have various export options from the detail view of a record. A Cite/Export link allows them to generate and copy a citation in various formats and export citations to various citation management programs (figure 10). Users can also print and e-mail a record from the detail view. Some of this functionality is also available from the brief results view.

WorldCat Local provides Did You Mean? functionality to help address misspelled words, and the contextualized hyperlinked suggestion can be clicked to automatically execute a search for the suggested word.

WorldCat Local supports various social features, including the ability for users to add reviews and tags to records. Users can choose to share a hyperlinked search query, detailed item of interest, or created list via various social and bookmarking sites, such as Facebook, Delicious, and over a hundred others. Users can create a public profile within WorldCat, providing a photo and personal details such as favorite websites and interests.

Vendor Website

OCLC WorldCat Local

www.oclc.org/us/en/worldcatlocal/default.htm

Example Implementations

Lincoln Trails Library System

www.lincolntrail.info/linc.html

University of Delaware

www.lib.udel.edu

University of Washington

www.lib.washington.edu

Willamette University

http://library.willamette.edu

WorldCat Local uses permanent URLs accessed via a Permalink icon, so libraries wishing to provide a link for a “canned search” can do so and embed these links where they desire. The WorldCat Local search box can be embedded in external webpages, such as a course management system, a LibGuide, and so on. If desired, libraries can manipulate the HTML and precode search parameters into the search string behind the scenes, allowing them to customize the scope of content searched for an embedded search box.

While it is not the focus of this issue of Library Technology Reports, WorldCat Local does offer federated search capabilities. WorldCat Local “quick start” customers have access to add only OCLC databases; WorldCat Local full customers can also add non-OCLC databases. As referenced earlier, a regularly updated list of these databases is available at the OCLC WorldCat Local website, with indications of which resources are available in the central index and which can optionally be configured and included via federated search. Should a library include such additional databases, results from the central index and remotely searched databases are blended together and presented to the user. New database connectors for federated search purposes are released on an ongoing basis by OCLC and are free of charge to customers.

OCLC and Google in 2008 entered into an agreement that, through mutual data exchanges, helps expose WorldCat records within a Google Book search, and expose Google digitized books within WorldCat. In a Google Books search, when viewing a record (figure 11), the user is presented with various buying options (Amazon, etc.) as well as a Find in a Library link. Clicking on this link connects to the WorldCat.org catalog and executes the appropriate search, presenting the record and additional content, including libraries nearby that hold the item. In addition a Google Book search API is able to facilitate a connection to books scanned through the Google books digitization project via the Get It link within the WorldCat detail record view. At the time of this writing, over three million Google books have been loaded into the WorldCat catalog.

WorldCat Local uses the Adobe SiteCatalyst (powered by Omniture) analytics tool to provide various statistics. Among other things, statistics available include number of searches conducted, search terms used, unique user counts, number of search results, zero-hit searches, and viewed items. Also provided is information on which facet choices were used for refinement purposes, as well as information on searches using the advanced search mode. Information on usage of library fulfillment options, such as holds placed and ILL requests, is also available. Statistics are available by customizable date range and include graphing and export options.

At the time of this writing, a mobile website version of WorldCat Local is under development (figure 12) and currently exists in beta status, with a production version likely to be released in 2011. It's expected the production version will support searching as found on full WorldCat Local sites, as well as configurable links, library-specific details, and library-specific landing pages optimized for the mobile environment. The beta optimized mobile version of the WorldCat.org catalog can be accessed on the WorldCat website. The mobile version allows users to search for materials and displays nearby libraries holding the items, utilizing the location services provided by many modern smartphones and their associated operating systems. The mobile version provides book cover images (if available), citation information, and the ability to e-mail citations. In addition, several dedicated third-party iOS-based applications exist. Such applications display information provided in part by WorldCat, and currently include Book Bazaar, CampusBooks, pic2shop, and RedLaser. Increasingly, dedicated apps are also available for the Android operating system.

WorldCat Mobile Web Beta

www.worldcat.org/m