Readers and a few private comments indicated that the Locomotive Engineers Journal from 1950 that I was trying to locate was on WorldCat, just that Google didn't link to it correctly.
The Locomotive Engineer Journal is on WorldCat. There are several libraries that have it, including one in the town where I work. Before I actually make a trip, I am waiting for a response to an email to make certain the library has the specific year I need (1950). The library's catalog entry for the publication made me wonder if they actually had a run that covered the time period in question.
Always confirm that a library has the material before making a trip. In my case, it's a short trip, but a trip nonetheless.
And if the "automatic" links to WorldCat fail to locate the item of interest, manually search on WorldCat. I was a little too quick on the draw this time.
1 comment:
I work in the IT department for a major academic library which is a Google Books partner.
Items in Google Books are scans. While Google does the scanning, the library contributing the physical material has to provide metadata to Google so that links can be made to other resources, like OCLC WorldCat.
OCLC records get merged as duplicates are found & records are improved. The library might also have not contributed the correct record, or had local errors.
The links also are contextual. You may have noticed that the "Find in a library" link does not appear on many Google Books records. No OCLC number (or possibly other metadata like ISBN (newer books) and ISSN (journals)) means no links is possible. Title searches are far too imprecise to be done as automatic links.
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