Before a public library team trials WorldCat, the first decision is not feature enthusiasm but operational fit: can it turn a patron’s request from "maybe somewhere has this" into a clear route: in-branch pickup, transfer from a partner system, or external interlibrary loan? Public libraries live on these three paths, and the wrong path wastes staff time and frustrates patrons. WorldCat is most useful when that first triage happens quickly and with enough certainty to avoid back-and-forth at the service desk.
Use it as an eligibility-and-journey checkpoint. Look for records that surface who is eligible to borrow, what forms or submission steps are required, and which libraries are legally allowed to fulfill the request. Jurisdiction boundaries—city, county, state, and consortium agreements—matter more than search depth in many cases. The stronger your policy clues on the item page, the less confusion around signatures, agreements, pickup rights, and estimated transfer routes. This is a practical fit test: not whether the world has the title, but whether your public service team can act on the result without guessing.
