1. Other than searching this database by keyword, you can search by some of the better known fields such as title, publisher, subject, or author. However, you can also search for other fields such as musical composition, language phrase, and material type.
2. I searched for the book Divergent since it is popular with my middle school girls, and it is coming out in the theaters. The first result turned up in 874 libraries worldwide. However, I noticed that looking down the list of search results, it is also available in other languages, which may change the spelling of the title to be appropriate for thier language. All results are by the same author, so I'm confident they are the same book - just published in another language.
When clicking on the #1 result, I found the list of libraries appeared to be in order closest to my location. However, when I clicked on the first one, it said "Page no longer available", and the second one said "This item is no longer in this database". My third result, the Mitchell Public Library, came up to be a positive search, and I could locate the book there. I'm sure this book is in many, many more libraries in South Dakota, but I find it interesting that the libraries aren't updating their inventories on this database. However, many public libraries may not check out books and mail them to people requesting to loan copies. That would explain why many school and public libraries are not listed.
3. The class descriptor for Divergent is LC: PZ7.R7375;
Dewey: [Fic]. Clicking on the author, Veronica Roth, the database says she has 255 publications - 165 books, 47 internet publications, 37 sound publications, 3 visual publications, 2 serial publications, and 1 computer publication. By looking over the titles, it seems that these are a lot of the same title repeated or offered in a different format. I noticed that many of the descriptors or subjects for this title are either Identity (Psychology), Family, Courage, or Social Classes. I clicked on the first one - Identity - and found a list of books on this similar subject. I was really excited about this, because I have read this series, and wondered if there are other books similar to this one that I would really enjoy reading as well. I will definitely use this feature of WorldCat!
Cool find for use of the Subject category! WorldCat is a member organization (meaning that it costs $$), so many of our SD libraries do not participate. Many of our libraries in SD do not have their catalogs online, but I'd bet you could find Divergent in most of them! :) Fun search and fun findings!
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