We’ve volunteered to be beta testers for a new FirstSearch interface for WorldCat. Mike and I had been discussing swapping out the link on our databases page for WorldCat that points to the old, clunky FirstSearch interface with the cleaner free version at WorldCat.org, which some of our users may have actually encountered and which offers lots of nice features for our patrons.
Today, a link to the beta interface for WorldCat has been added to the Trials tab of the databases page. Feedback about the new interface and how it compares to the WorldCat.org version will help us decide whether we should go ahead with linking to the new FirstSearch version or the WorldCat.org one. Please use the database trials form or comments to this blog post to share your thoughts. Feel free to pass along this request for comments to students and faculty you work with.
If you want to learn more about the new FirstSearch interface, OCLC has archived a webinar about it on YouTube. The best parts are:
- this introductory part that begins at 5:50 and runs for about 4-5 minutes
- this section that runs for about 2-3 minutes and sums up features and benefits of the new interface