WorldCat History

While in search of a history lesson on WorldCat, I found a great resource that is part of Google. It is a timeline that consists of entries from news sites. Up until this point, I had struggled to find something of worth on each blog or site that claimed to have historical accounts about OCLC and WorldCat. In addition, I felt that going to OCLC's site may not have given me the whole story. Instead, I have really hit gold with this timeline. It seems to fully outline many of the main points of historical value regarding WorldCat. Since I have not yet encountered a full history on WorldCat, I hope my blog will serve as a tool for future searchers who are looking for this information.

Another interesting tool that I found on Google when searching WorldCat is their WonderWheel. This shows related searches on topics related to "OCLC" and "history," which were my search terms. I think that this could be a very useful tool for reference librarians, however, there is little description of what it does on the page. I found that if one were to click on an ancillary search term, another bubble is made over the circle in the center. This continues as the search gets more exact. If the search takes the researcher to a search that is not relevant, they can retrace their steps through the previous bubbles. A drawback is that the alternative searches are not weighted in any way, be it with size of font or boldness.



Sources:

Timeline (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2009, from Google, http://www.google.com/search?q=History%20%22OCLC%22&hl=en&lr=&tbo=1&output=search&tbs=ww:1
http://www.google.com/search?q=History+of++%22OCLC%22&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=X&tbo=p&tbs=tl:1&num=50&ei=SOXUSo3DIZK2MKiUjZQD&oi=timeline_navigation_bar&ct=timeline-navbar&cd=2&ved=0CBkQywEoAw

Lopez-Duran, N. (2008, March 3). Re: How it all began [Web log message]. Retrieved from WorldCat Blog, http://worldcat.org/blogs/archives/2008/03/how-it-all-began.htm

Wonderwheel (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2009, from Google, http://www.google.com/search?q=History%20%22OCLC%22&hl=en&lr=&tbo=1&output=search&tbs=ww:1