Did you know that you can now search through the largest library catalog in the world - the WorldCat Union catalog - through Google? "Open WorldCat" has been a year-long pilot program to share WorldCat cataloging records with the Google search harvester. The result is that almost 58 million books, journals, and other items can now be discovered through the simple Google interface.

How does it work? There are several ways to search Google for WorldCat records:

1. Add the word "worldcatlibraries" or the phrase "find in a library" to your search terms:

This will bring the WorldCat records to the top of your search results:

Click on the search results link and enter your zip code to view libraries nearby that own that item. If you are on-campus, you'll also see options to search the catalog here at the University Libraries, to view the full WorldCat record on FirstSearch, and request materials not owned locally on Interlibrary Loan through ILLiad:

2. You can also search through our customized search form on our WorldCat information page.

Open WorldCat is pretty cool, but not perfect. You will not be able to conduct the sophisticated searches that you are able to on the FirstSearch WorldCat platform, such as limiting by publication date or by format. You will also not be able to sort your results by date or author. Off-campus users may find that they are not able to access many of our electronic resources, such as other FirstSearch databases. Read more about future enhancements on OCLC's OpenWorldCat page. In the meantime, give it a spin!

Not to be outdone, the Research Libraries Group (RLG), a consortium of large research libraries such as Stanford, Yale, and the New York Public Library, have created an easy-to-use interface to their union catalog, RLIN. RedLightGreen at http://www.redlightgreen.com offers free access to more than 120 million books from RLIN. RedLightGreen uses new cataloging standards so that all versions of a work are grouped together. For example, a search for "Lord of the Rings" retrieves more than 200 title variants, including the recorded book versions, individual titles in the set such as "The Two Towers," and all editions published from 1955 until the present.

RedLightGreen allows you to check our online catalog to determine if the University Libraries own a work:

RedLightGreen also has a nifty citation helper application that allows users to save search results in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Turabian styles.

Read more about RedLightGreen at the RLG Web site.

The Libraries recently upgraded our interlibrary loan system, ILLiad. Now, you can more easily place ILL requests from all these databases:

AGRICOLA AGRIS (WebSpirs) Alternative Press Archive Alternative Press Index America History & Life (ABC-CLIO) ArticleFirst (FirstSearch) ASFA: Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts Biological Abstracts (WebSpirs) BioOne Abstracts and Indexes CAB Abstracts (WebSpirs) CINAHL / Nursing and Allied Health (Ebsco) CLASE and PERIODICA Compendex (EI Village) Current Contents Connect Ebsco Academic Search Premier Ebsco Business Source Premier EconLit (FirstSearch) ERIC FirstSearch Databases Food Science and Technology Abstracts (WebSpirs) GeoBase (FirstSearch) GeoRef (FirstSearch) Historical Abstracts (ABC-CLIO)

INSPEC (EI Village) International Political Science Abstracts (WebSPIRS) Library Literature (FirstSearch) Media Review Digest MEDLINE (FirstSearch) MLA Bibliography (Ebsco) National Criminal Justice Reference Service: NCJRS (CSA) PAIS Archive (FirstSearch) PAIS International (FirstSearch) PapersFirst (FirstSearch) Physical Education Index (CSA) Pre-CINAHL (Ebsco) ProceedingsFirst (FirstSearch) PsycInfo (Ebsco) Readers' Guide Retrospective Religion Index (ATLA) SciFinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts) Social Services Abstracts (CSA) Sociological Abstracts (CSA) Trop Ag and Rural (WebSPIRS) Web of Science WorldCat (FirstSearch) Zoological Record (WebSpirs)

As always, please check the library catalog, InfoLinks, before placing an ILL request.

The Libraries are pleased to announce the launch of the new Arkansas Publications Index (API) at http://arkindex.uark.edu.

What is API?

A developing database of citations to information in selected magazines, county history journals, books, and other Arkansas publications.

This database began with entries from Arkansas Periodical Index, which indexed 55 periodical titles for the years 1981-1985, with additional entries prepared by personnel in the Reference and Special Collections departments of the University of Arkansas Libraries.

The articles and other entries indexed were published in county history journals (from Benton County Pioneer to White County Heritage), selected statewide magazines (from Arkansas Banker to Rural Arkansas), and selected book titles (such as Arkansas Biography and Governors of Arkansas). Dates covered by the initial 35,000 entries range from the 1880s to 2000.

Now researchers from around the state - or around the world - can search or browse for book and article citations on everything Arkansas.

Send your comments and suggestions on this developing resource to:

arkindex@uark.edu