So at the Electronic Editors Meeting at lunchtime (at the Jefferson Library where I work) today, I mention the new “Find in a Library” feature available on Google right now that allows you to search for a book and find out right away which library near you has that book. Cool, right? Except then I realize no one else in the room knows about it and hasn’t noticed it when it’s been available in beta in Google for some time now … it’s called OpenWorldCat and is a collaborative effort by OCLC, together with Google and Yahoo!.
Then I get a “Hey Endrina, you knew about this, and didn’t tell us??” I go, “But, but, I thought you would have seen this on Google by now, or heard about around town etc. etc.”
So I guess where I’m going with this is that, “How am I supposed to know who knows something, and who doesn’t?? I guess I’m supposed to keep afloat atop all the information overload and inundation, filter out the really useful stuff, and then make sure we pass the right bits on to the right people. I don’t know. My brain is only “theese” small. I know, I know I’m supposed to be the friendly, helpful librarian here, and plus we ALL know that … Librarians know EVERYTHING … and we’re supposed to help others get better at helping themselves (ALA Librarians Code of Ethics etc. etc.). But easier said than done.
Maybe if I manage to squeeze some time out regularly to do this blogging thing, I won’t have this problem. Hmmm, we’ll see …
But back to the Open WorldCat thingey … it’s really cool. Too bad the Jefferson Library’s books are not on there because we don’t have a OCLC Firstsearch account … at least not yet … see: http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/open/how/default.htm
