Changes in worldwide library catalogs

The RedLightGreen worldwide library catalog will be going out of service November 1, 2006.  Its functions will be taken over by a new system called Worldcat.org

This change is happening because the organizations that produce these systems are merging into a single entity.  Both organizations have very close ties to the library world and have made great efforts to ensure that no data or capabilities are lost in this transition.

Here are some differences that RedLightGreen users might notice in Worldcat.org:

  • Editions of a work in different languages are treated as separate works, not grouped together.
  • Ranking of search results is slightly different, based on the occurrence of your search terms in certain fields, the currency of a work, and how many libraries own it.
  • There will be more options for narrowing down a result set: author, content, format, language, and year.
  • Worldcat.org does not currently let you format citations for APA, Chicago, MLA, or other bibliographic styles. This feature will be added in early 2007.

The full-featured version of the RLG Union Catalog will continue to be available for the time being, but eventually will be merged into the full-featured version of WorldCat.