Once again I find myself recommending something written by Marshall Breeding in ALA's Smart Libraries Newsletter... In this article in the June 2007 issue, he does a great job of explaining WorldCat Local, OCLC's effort at improving the catalog search experience for local users. In April, a beta version of WorldCat Local installed at the University of Washington Libraries was made public.
We've been hearing a lot lately about WorldCat Local and Ex Libris' Primo product (e.g. the Regional ExLibris User Group meeting), but here's a chance to actually try it out.
Read the article, then go play around in the UW implementation.
Let us know what you think or what questions it raises for you.
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