WorldCat Identities (Web Service)
From the webpage:
A service that provides personal, corporate and subject-based identities (writers, authors, characters, corporations, horses, ships, etc.) based on information in WorldCat.
- Provides direct links to identity information based on LCCN or a personal name
- Provides access to identity information using OpenURL based on lastname and OCLC Number
- Provides search access to identity information
What you get
- Browsable and searchable access to names in WorldCat and associated information such as
For non-librarians:
LCCN = Library of Congress Control Number.
OCLC number = OCLC Control Number.
A widget to search for LCCN or OCLC numbers would be quite handy.
For library purposes, I think merging on either one would be adequate. Would have to work out what do to with MARC fields that had varying data. Do we capture it with provenance? Discard, favoring one record over the other, etc.
For class:
- What would you suggest as an interface to this service? 2 pages (no citations)
- How would you use this interface at your library (or your local library)? 3 pages (no citations)