WorldCat and Comparison to local OPACs

Name of OPAC	WorldCat	MadCat	Madison Public Library
Creator/Owner of OPAC	OCLC	Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System	South Central Library System
Scope	Searches the collections of over 10,000 libraries worldwide. 1.4 billion items are available	Can search UW-Madison and other UW System universities in the consortium.	Searches the holdings of the South Central Library System’s 52 member libraries.
Type of library	Anyone on the web, all kinds of libraries included	Academic & Special Collections	Public
Intended Audience	Anyone on the web	UW Students and Faculty only	Active cardholders of the library located in WI
Included in WorldCat?	N/A	Yes	Yes
Skips stop words?	Likely, but no documentation found to assure me of this. Other OCLC tools do have stop lists, including OCLC’s Connexion	Initial articles should not be used, unless in “Words Anywhere.” Other searches may be affected by the use of articles.	No. I searched “The” and was faced with over 524,000 results.
Stop words list available for viewing?	No	N/A	N/A
Limits/limiters			None
Default Boolean operator (e.g., in a simple keywords search)	None, Boolean is not available	AND	AND (but it is not necessary to type in the word AND)
Boolean operators	N/A	AND, OR	OR, NOT
Proximity operator (no specific word order)	N/A	N/A	N/A
Proximity operator (with word order)	N/A	N/A	N/A
Phrase searching	Quotation marks do work, but are not documented	Use quotation marks	The use of quotation marks seems to have no relevance.
Truncation	* symbol does work, but is not documented.	? symbol is used in any part of the word, including the end or beginning of words	* symbol does work, but is not documented.
Wildcard (character)	* and ? symbols do work, but are not documented	? symbol	There does not appear to be any wildcard besides the * symbol. ? does not appear to work.
Faceted Searching available after search is made?	Yes	No	No
Searchable fields	Accession Number Author ISBN ISSN Journal Source Keyword Title Subject	Keywords Anywhere Title (begins with) Title Words Journal Title (begins with) Author Browse Keyword Boolean Subject Heading Browse Call Number Browse Call Number ISBN Title Author Name ISSN Subject OCLC number Series Publisher Name Internet Links Personal Name Content Notes Local Subject Headings Notes Holding Location Code Subtitle Opus/Thematic Number Holdings Keyword Music Publisher Number Physical Details	Basic Searches: Key word(s) Author, etc. (Last, First) Title Key Word(s) Title starts with Subject Key Word(s) Subject Heading starts with Series Title starts with Contents-Songs, Plays, Stories ISBN Other Tabs include: Audio Book Title starts with Audio Book Key Word Magazine Title starts with Magazine Title Key Word Music Title starts with Music Key Word Software Title starts with Software Key Word Video Title starts with Video Key Word Children’s Author Children’s Key Word Children’s Title starts with Web Resource Title starts with Web Resource Key Word Clubs & Organizations also included Newspaper Indexes also included
Limits/limiters	Year Audience Content Format Language	Date Language Type Location Publication Place of Publication Quick Limit includes: Last 5 Years English Language English and last 10 years Books Recordings Musical Scores Online Resources Reference Collections Video, Slide, Film, etc.	None

What I must first point out about these very different systems is that they are all intended for very different audiences. WorldCat is for the largest audience, which would include the use of patrons from both the academic audience for MadCat and the public audience for the Madison Public Library. From reviewing and analyzing the information that I found about the different systems, I have found that each has its advantages and disadvantages.

WorldCat is only a search mechanism. You cannot order books through the consortium or through Interlibrary Loan. Its use is only for a search tool. ILL requests must be made through the catalog of the school. MadCat and LINK (the Madison Public system) will allow users to make requests online for items and they can then pick them up at whatever location is most convenient.

WorldCat tends to make its user experience a lot more like using Google. In their search help they state: “WorldCat is just like any other Web search site you've used: Simply enter one or more basic keywords in the search box at the top of any WorldCat page.” 1. There is a Help file, but searching is not well defined. For instance, when I attempted searches using truncation and wildcards, I found that they did have an effect on the searching. This surprised me, since this was not well-documented in their Help. The Madison Public Library also had a undocumented symbol, the * symbol, which worked when I did some sample searches.

Perhaps taking a cue from WorldCat, MadCat has now includes a tabbed search box. MadCat has quite a few more fields to search, as well as limiters. The Madison Public Library system also has a tabbed system. The user is first faced with several boxes on their Basic Search. This allows the user to search by very regimented possibilities, such as Author, Title, and Keyword. More than one field can be filled in, which creates a more complex search. The other sections allow the users to search by format, children’s only, web resources, and organizations. This again points to the difference in the user. People using the public library in Madison and surrounding areas have very different needs from their branch library compared to UW students.

MadCat seems to have the widest variety of databases, however, this makes sense, due to the fact that it is the catalog of a world-class research facility. WorldCat could be used in conjunction to MadCat to more easily search the citations in the database, rather than checking at each database for subject terms. The relatively small number of databases at the Madison Public Library may mean that users there will be frustrated when they find a citation and are not able to retrieve it due to access issues.

There were a few things that all of the online systems agreed upon. One was the failure to adequately document the use of a list of stop words. The other was the absence of proximity operators. This tool would be handy for use in the journal articles of WorldCat and also for UW-System searches that may be completed by super users. It is probably not as important for the Madison Public Library.

Being a user of both MadCat and LINK, I feel that the My MadCat Account system far exceeds the My Account system of LINK. When a request is made that is incorrectly sent to the wrong library, it is easy to change in MadCat. This is not the case for LINK; rerouting must be done by library staff or the user must cancel the request and place it again. This could be problematic if there is a list of holds. The WorldCat account, which I discussed in a previous blog posting, could be used to track what the user has read through either of the other two systems, if they so wished.

As far as the look-and-feel of the different systems, I would have to say that WorldCat wins out in the modernity department. The look of MadCat has changed very little since the late 1990s when I went to Undergrad at UW. The changes implemented earlier in the school year seem to have been mostly rolled back, pending further testing. Even after it had changed, the MadCat system still retained its red, grey and white styling. In the same vein, the Madison Public Library System appears to have a very old interface. As we heard in Jen’s presentation, the South Central Library System will soon move to Koha. I think that this will be a good move (if it is well-implemented) and that it is a long time coming.


Sources:

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

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

Library Interchange Network. (2008-2010). Retrieved October 28, 2009, from Madison Public Library, Library’s LINKcat website, http://madcat.library.wisc.edu/

WorldCat Help. (2001-2009). Retrieved November 27, 2009, from OCLC WorldCat, Searching and search results, http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/help/en/search/default.htm#howsearch