World Cat

How I Searched:

I did an advanced search with the terms "public libraries" and "communities" as my subject. I limited my search to the past five years, a non-juvenile audience, non-fiction content, book format and the English language. I get 97 results.

My Results:

My Best Result:

What I Learned, Content: 

Transforming Libraries,Building Communities: The Community-Centered Library is a book by Julie Biando Edwards, Melissa S. Robinson and Kelly Rae Unger. It uses real-life examples to show how any US library can become community-centered, no matter what their size, demographics or budget is.

What I Learned, Searching:

WorldCat is huge! If users don't make good use of their limiters in advanced searching, they will receive thousands of results. This can be overwhelming and frustrating. The more limiters you use, the more focused (and smaller!) your results will be.

Reflection:

I liked using WorldCat. It reminded me of my public library's OPAC, so it was familiar and easy for me to use. Even it it weren't familiar to me, I think I would have quickly picked up on how to use it. I like that it lets you know which nearby libraries have the item you are looking at. I'm not sure how it pinpoints your location, it had me located about 30 miles from where I actually was. But it was an easy fix. I think this feature has a lot of potential for someone who is doing research.

Reference:
WorldCat. 2014. WorldCat. https://www.worldcat.org/default.jsp