ERIC (at www.eric.ed.gov/) has Added the “Find in a Library” Feature

In the fall, I blogged here at Library Garden about Google Book Search finally including library locator information in their results when you conduct a book search. My favorite addition was when they included under the “Advanced Book Search” the limit option of “Library Catalogs,” which would help locate nearby libraries owning the item, libraries in World Cat (learn more here).

Now, my favorite education database, ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center), two days ago, added the “Find in a Library” feature because they have recently...

“partnered with OCLC to leverage the OpenURL Gateway and WorldCat to provide users with a link from ERIC records to library resources. [This] feature dramatically streamlines the process of obtaining full text” from many ERIC documents. I tried it today with an education student, and it worked great.

Individuals, however, must search ERIC at http://www.eric.ed.gov/ at this time, where the "Find in a Library" link is featured at the bottom of each result under the "Full-Text Availability Options." Currently, this feature is not available via the EBSCO version of ERIC.

“The Find in a Library feature offers two linking paths: OpenURL and WorldCat. For users associated with one of the 1,100 libraries registered with the OCLC OpenURL Gateway, selecting Find in a Library will lead to a search of the library's electronic holdings and seamless access to available full text. If no full text is available users may choose to link to WorldCat.”

“If the user is not affiliated with a library registered in the OpenURL Gateway, Find in a Library will connect to WorldCat to find the nearest library with a print or electronic version of the material. WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services and catalogs a billion items in more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.”

Technorati Tags: WorldCat, book search, library catalogs, Google Book Search, Find in a library, ERIC