Topic Introduction

Welcome to the blog "Digital Tools, Trends and Debates." This blog is part of an assignment for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Information and Library Studies class 644: Digital Tools, Trends and Debates, thus the clever name! Our professor, Jo Sin, assigned us the task of choosing a digital product or topic and covering that via two methods: tagging in delicious and blogging in Blogger. I have chosen the Online Computer Library Center's (hereafter OCLC) WorldCat online cataloging and retrieval tool.

My choice was simple: I had used WorldCat in the past to search for textbooks, videos and novels, however, I never thought to think of any of the implications of WorldCat on libraries or librarians. After reading an article in the magazine, American Libraries, which is distributed by the American Library Association (ALA), my views of WorldCat as simply a cool online tool were challenged. I began to question whether this tool was somehow infringing on the rights of those who entered records, or if it perhaps could affect our privacy as users. I also was intrigued by the new Web 2.0 features that were being touted for the newest version.

In my blog, I hope to explore the website www.WorldCat.org in depth, as well as compare the tool to the University of Wisconsin-Madison's online catalog, Madcat. I also hope to discuss some of the new Web 2.0 features and compare them to a website I currently use called Goodreads, which appears to offer some of the same features. I will also discuss the impact of the new policies on libraries and librarians. I hope to look at the positive and negative impacts of this tool, as well as delving deeper in to some of these issues. Enjoy reading!

Sources:

WorldCat. (2001-2009). Retrieved September 16, 2009, from OCLC, WorldCat website, www.worldcat.org

American Libraries. (2008). Retrieved September 18, 2009, from American Library Association, American Libraries Magazine website, http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/index.cfm


MadCat. (2006). Retrieved September 16, 2009, from University of Wisconsin-Madison, Libraries website, http://madcat.library.wisc.edu/


Goodreads. (2009). Retrieved September 18, 2009, from Goodreads, Inc, http://www.goodreads.com/