storytelling

Open WorldCat is a revolutionary approach to using the internet to look up books. From their website (which you should definitely go have a look at):

The Open WorldCat program makes records of library-owned materials in OCLC's WorldCat database available to Web users on popular Internet search, bibliographic and bookselling sites. "Deep" links to content in library collections—books, serials, digital images and many other formats—appear alongside links to traditional Web content.

The result: OCLC member libraries are more visible on the Web, and their collections are more accessible from the sites where many people start their search for information.

So here's a little experiment that will demonstrate (I hope) how Open WorldCat works. You've got the cover image here of To Kill a Mockingbird. If you want to buy a copy from Amazon, you click on the cover. If you don't care to buy a copy from Amazon and instead would like to see if it's in your local library, you can go to Open WorldCat. Note: I use the Amazon link because that allows me to use their image -- which they host, so it doesn't use up my bandwidth. And you know what kind of trouble that can get you into.

So if you see OWC next to the title of a book, clicking on it will take you to the Open WorldCat details page, and from there (as the mathematician would say) Bob's your uncle. For example, have a look at To Kill a Mockingbird OWC.

I'll try to include the OWC link now whenever I mention a book.

And because I want to test this some more, a couple titles:
Homestead OWC

Into the Wilderness OWC

and the little book that was one of my daughter's favorites when she was about four: Pierre OWC

edited to add: radiant Robyn Bender asks a logical question: how do you look something up on OWC on your own? This OWC page provides that service.

Posted by at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As superstitious as I am sometimes, as I am right now, I find it hard to say much about how well the writing is going. Let's just say I'm very pleased: lots of words on the screen, and they seem to make a story when they are read one after the other. The characters are talking to me and showing me things. When this happens it feels like there's an angelfood cake in the oven. As a kid my Aunt Lillian would make us talk in whispers and tiptoe for fear of making the cake fall. Someday I will have to bake an angelfood cake and yell and jump up and down and see what happens.

Otherwise:

1. reading quite a lot. I will post reviews of a few books in the next couple days.

2. finished a textile piece (or at least, finished enough that I have to hang it and look at it for a couple weeks to see if it is, in fact, really finished) and started a new one.

3. the book cataloging adventure continues. I now have over 2,000 in the database -- or in both databases. One on my computer and the other at Library Thing. If you're curious about the books I consult you can have a look at my tags page and click on the topic that concerns you. You'll see that I read at least 38 books having to do directly or indirectly with the War of 1812 while I was writing Queen of Swords. I was quite astounded myself at that number, I have to admit. Now all those books are lined up together and I look at them and wonder why I still feel as though I don't know very much about the danged war.

So that's it for the moment. More soon.

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