SELCO (Southeastern Libraries Cooperating) has announced that patrons can now view catalog records via basic browser searches.

Patrons using popular search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, can find library item records in search engine results when they search for a title and include “SELCO” or library name.

This new tool makes library items more readily accessible to patrons in their homes or on mobile devices and to those who are not active users of SELCO libraries.

Previously library catalog records could not be found on search engines because library records, known as MARC records, cannot be read by search engine crawlers. BLUEcloud Visibility is a tool created by our library software provider, SirsiDynix. This tool transforms detailed library MARC records information into a new type of library record that is compatible with search engines.

If you search for a title plus SELCO, you might find that your library results are not at the top of the search engine results returned.

Library records are late in coming to the web, so it will take time for SELCO records to make their way through the ranks and land at the top of your results list. Search engines like Google prefer reliable sources like libraries and sites that people visit more often, and over time we can expect to climb up the list.

Eventually the engines will be able to deliver library catalog records without requiring that “SELCO” be included in the search. Patrons will be able to simply search for a title and a search engine will pair a searcher’s geo-location with result data, to deliver the same catalog results.

You can help SELCO improve search engine relevance by searching for us. Search for titles and follow the links to find and request your items. As more people show SELCO resources to be popular and useful, search engines will respond by giving our results preference.