Searching WorldCat.org

Okay so you've found a reference to a book, author, musical performer, subject, etc. somewhere on the internet. You wonder whether a library near you has a copy, what materials on the subject exist, or what else this author, musician, etc has created. You could search participating libraries at worldcat.org as a part of the sleuthing process by using OCLC/WorldCat's search add-on for your web browser. Oh, wait that only works in Firefox....

For those of you who don't want to make your Firefox search add-on list any longer, or don't even use Firefox, you can drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar, select some text on a web site, click the bookmark and be taken in a new window/tab to WorldCat results. It is a hack, but can be easily refined in a number of ways, if one wished. It works for me the way it is, with one little problem: selected text in a form field (and probably within flash content) can't be used as fodder for the search.

Here is the code:

javascript:(
function%20getSelText(){
var%20txt='';
if(window.getSelection){
txt=window.getSelection();
}
else%20if(document.selection){
txt=document.selection.createRange().text;
}
else{
return;
}
newSearch=window.open(%22http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=%22+txt);
}
)();

Abuhachi torazu ｢虻蜂取らず」

Abuhachi torazu ｢虻蜂取らず」 is an idiom found at the beginning of Kodansha's Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms, it means literally to catch neither the horsefly nor the bee; in other words try to do two things at once and fail at both. Deconstructing it we have: Abu 「虻」'horsefly' + hachi 「蜂」'bee' and a form of toru「取る」'take in the hand; acquire'. This is to say I feel I have too many different interesting scholarly projects going and I'm feel as though I am failing at them all.