June 22, 2004

Find A Book In A Library
I was trying to get some information on an old book, and I stumbled across a "Google hit" that said "Find in a Library", which took me to something called WorldCat
I'll try to explain how it works, because it's a little tricky.
First, pick an old book. I like The Story of Man, by Carleton S. Coon. It's a history of the world, told from an anthropological perspective.
Let's go look for it.
First, we go to Google
We type in "Find in a Library" "The Story of Man" in the window.
Our 6th Result is
Find in a Library: The story of man; from the first human to ...
The story of man; from the first human to primitive culture and beyond.
* By: Carleton Stevens Coon * Publisher: New York, Knopf, 1954. ...
worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/8ad0f9d47373cc78.html - Similar pages
Click on that result, and you'll be sent to a page called WorldCat, even though the URL Title is Local Libraries.
You'll be asked to input your zip code. I've found that once you've entered your zip code, it will continue to appear until you change it, for the next title you put in. Once it's input, then, voĆ­la, out will come a list of libraries, in your area, where you can find the book.
The good part is that all the information you need to locate the book in libraries closer to home is there for you.
Cool, eh!?

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