WorldCat

I have been using WorldCat for many years. It was a huge part of my undergraduate experience and I have been recommending WorldCat to friends and patrons ever since I began working in a library. I find WorldCat to be particular useful when tracking down a resource that I need right away – something that I cannot wait 2-3 day for via interlibrary loan. Because I am lucky enough to live in a major city, I am frequently able to track down a book or resource through WorldCat at a local library. For this project, I decided to search for a book on cybersecurity with an emphasis on research. After reading about social media research in my last search, I decided to see if there were any materials in my search that would be informative for a librarian who is conducting research.

I conducted this search as part of our Online Information Retrieval Lab. The requirements of the lab were to search for your topic, then limit by the years 2012-2014. Using that search, I was able to locate a book that fit my initial search project.

I found Jody R. Westby’s Legal Guide to Cybersecurity Research. I am particularly interested in this text because it was published by the American Bar Association (a very reputable publisher of legal information) and, as a (hopeful) future law librarian I would be interested in learning what special concerns there may be in searching for information about cyber and network securities.

What I Learned

I cannot say that I learned much about my topic specifically through this search, because of the nature of this database. Unlike other databases, I was not reading an article about my topic. However, browsing the results that were returned did give me an idea of what types of information is available about the topic of cybersecurity and the wide range of subjects that are involved in the study of cybersecurity, privacy and our ideas about identity on the web.

While this is not something learned specifically from my time in this course, I do recommend always inputting your zip code when searching WorldCat unless you are very specifically looking for materials in other areas. Your zip code will stick around anytime you log on to World Cat with the same IP address and it will make quick searches for resources that much faster.

Reflection

I still think that WorldCat is one of the most useful websites in a librarian’s arsenal. I always have a positive experience with WorldCat and while I haven’t needed to use it specifically in my work as a reference librarian yet, I like knowing that I am not limited to my own library when searching for resources. Like I said in my initial search explanation, living in a big city has its advantages. I imagine that WorldCat will also be useful if I decide to work more with collection development, as I compare the collection of my own library with the libraries of peer institutions.