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Index labels and examples of an expert search in WorldCat

Find examples and index labels for an expert search of WorldCat in FirstSearch.
  • You may type an index label with your search terms rather than a selection from the list of indexes to search on any search screen. The information you type overrides all default menu selections.
  • Use a colon after an index label (as in au:wang) when you are not certain of your search terms.
  • Use an equal sign (=) after an index label (as in au=saint-arroman, august) for an exact match search.

Text string searches

The following are sample rather than actual searches.

index label example
Keyword kw: coffee or tea and house+
(keyword searches, publication year, ISBN, geographic codes, map data, and all the information found in the Author, Title, Notes, and Subject indexes)
Access Method am: www oclc org (or) oclc
(omit https:// and use spaces instead of any punctuation or special characters)
Accession Number no: 37993343
(OCLC)
Action Note io: digital master
Author au: saint-arroman
(use single quotes around 'le' and other words that are operators; operators supported in FirstSearch: Boolean search operators, parentheses, proximity operators, wildcards; operators included are le, ge, it, gt, n, near, w, with, and, or, not)
Author Phrase au= saint-arroman auguste
(use double quotes around exact phrases; omit single quote from 'le' operator when the double quote is used to search for an exact phrase)
Corporate and Conference Name cn: canadian
Corporate and Conference Name Phrase cn= canadian acoustics week
Country of Publication cp: Norway
Country of Publication Phrase cp= Nova Scotia
Descriptor de: voice disorders
Descriptor Phrase de= voice disorders in children
Dewey Class Edition d2: 19
(edition used to assign & Lang.index.dewey;.)
Dewey Class Number dd: 998.900
(index deletes and collapses spaces and punctuation, except periods)
Genre/Form ge: solo piano
Genre/Form Phrase ge= screenplays
Geographic Coverage gc: cape
Geographic Coverage Phrase gc= capetown
Gov Doc Number gn: y4p9610w292
(omit spaces and punctuation)
ISBN nb: 3196311821 or 31-9631-182-1
9780763625894 or 978-0-763625-89-4
(search with or without hyphens)
ISSN ns: 0000-0019
(use hyphens)
Language Phrase ln= kw:coffeehouse* and ln=japanese
(browse the index for a complete list of languages)
Library and Archives Canada Class Number ca: sf209.5
(index deletes and collapses spaces and punctuation, except periods)
Library of Congress Call No. lc: hd9000.6
(index deletes and collapses all spaces and punctuation, except periods)
LC Control Number nl: ne64-2560 or ne64002560 or ne642560 or 64-2560 or 64002560 or 642560
(prefixes can be immediately connected to the number or removed; hyphens can be included or removed; the number is searchable as it is stored, with the year and then six digits with leading zeros for unused digits, or as it is often displayed, without zeros)
Material Type mt: vhs
Material Type Phrase mt= vhs tape
Music Number mu: has19832
(concatenates all punctuation and spaces up to a dash or double hyphen)
Musical Composition mc: jazz
Musical Composition Phrase mc= folk music
Named Corporation and Conference nc: world conference on women
Named Corporation and Conference Phrase nc= intel corporation
Named Person na: mandela
Named Person Phrase na= mandela, nelson
(last name first with first comma retained)
Natl Ag Lib Call No ag: sf223.w47
(index deletes and collapses spaces and punctuation, except periods)
NLM Call Number lm: hv4915
(index deletes and collapses spaces and punctuation, except periods)
NLM Call Number Phrase lm= hv4915g461999
(index deletes and collapses spaces and punctuation, except periods)
Notes/Comments nt: translation-adaptation
Personal Name pn: lemaire
Personal Name Phrase pn= lemaire, gerard-georges
(last name first with or without first comma retained)
Publisher pb: media
Publisher Phrase pb= new star media inc
Publisher Location pl: china
Report Number rn: epa 000275057
(omit punctuation and retain spaces)
Series Title se: emb report
Series Title Phrase se= emb evaluation report
Standard Number sn: 1097461x or 1097-461x
1550463160 or 155-0463-160
9780763625894 or 978-0-763625-89-4
64002560
(for all searches, hyphens can be included in the search or removed; for the LCCN number, only the number used for storage, with the year and then six digits with leading zeros for unused digits, is indexed; many other standard numbers are included in this index)
Subject su: coffee and tea house+
Subject Phrase su= coffeehouses in art
Subject All sa= medical fees canada
(phrase search of complete subject heading with all parts, so "medical fees-canada" is searched as a single phrase)
Subject Headings, LC hl: biography
(only subject headings noted as US Library of Congress)
Subject Headings, LC Phrase hl= authors american
(only subject headings noted as US Library of Congress)
Subject Headings, LC Children's Lit hc: parties
(only subject headings noted as US Library of Congress Children's Literature)
Subject Headings, LC Children's Lit Phrase hc= childrens writing
(only subject headings noted as US Library of Congress Children's Literature)
Subject Headings, MeSH hm: optometry
(only subject headings noted as MESH/US National Library of Medicine)
Subject Headings, MeSH Phrase hm= vision low
(only subject headings noted as MESH/US National Library of Medicine)
Subject Headings, NAL ha: fruit
(only subject headings noted as US National Library of Agriculture)
Subject Headings, NAL Phrase ha= fruit trees
(only subject headings noted as US National Library of Agriculture)
Subject Headings, Canadian he: photography
(only subject headings noted as Canadian National Library in English)
Subject Headings, Canadian Phrase he= landscape photography
(only subject headings noted as Canadian National Library in English)
Subject Headings, RVM hr: indiens
(only subject headings noted as Repertoire des vedettes-matiere [Canadian National Library in French])
Subject Headings, RVM Phrase hr= politique sanitaire
(only subject headings noted as Repertoire des vedettes-matiere [Canadian National Library in French])
Subject Headings, Sears hs: legends
(only subject headings noted as Sears)
Subject Headings, Sears Phrase hs= jewish legends
(only subject headings noted as Sears)
Subject Headings, Other ho: fiction
gsafd
(includes the MARC codes for the classification type indexed)
Subject Headings, Other Phrase ho= historical fiction
Title ti: music w3 british w3 enlightenment
Title Phrase ti= music theory in the British isles during the enlightenment
Uniform Title ut: bible
Uniform Title Phrase ut= selected poems 1930-1972
Unique Serial Title tk: renew annual report
Unique Serial Title Phrase tk= service & innovation
Universal Decimal Class No. ud: 101-051
(use periods and hyphens)
Vendor vn: libros
Year 2 yy: 1997
(all unknown digits are searched as 9s; however, if all four digits are unknown, they are searched as 0000)

Refine your results

Refine your results by combining these labels with your search terms:

refine by label example
DLC restrictor dl: ti:anything and dl:y
Document type1 bks (books) mix (mixed material) dt= (history and dt=map)
com (computer) rec (recordings)
map (maps) sco (scores)
vis (visual media) ser (serials)
url (internet resource) art (articles)
int (continually updated resource)  
Language2 ln= ln=spa or ln=spanish
Library holdings3 li= li=ocl
Material type4 mt: or mt= history and mt=juvenile

history and mt=microform
Number of libraries5 cg: history and cg:31-
Year(s) of publication yr: yr:1996-1998

1 Use this limit only in combination with another search statement.

2 Valid values for the language limiter include both the MARC three-letter language code and the English spelling of a language. For example, Spanish can be searched using ln=spa or ln=spanish. Browse the index for a complete list of languages.

3 For a list of library symbols, see the Directory of OCLC members.

4 A number of specific searches are available with the material type index can make an excellent method for limiting records. For a complete list of material type indexes see Material types.

5 For a complete list of codes for the Number of Libraries index, see Number of library holdings.

Derived key searches

You may enter derived key searches with or without the index label.

Omit the following:

  • Articles a, an, the, and non-English articles when they are the first word of a title
  • Punctuation
  • Diacritics
  • These additional characters: -  /  +  =  ±

Include the following:

  • Articles found within titles
  • Letters
  • Numerals
  • These additional characters: &  $  *  %  @  £   flat (music notation)

Hints:

Use a circumflex (^) to make the search precise. For a name with only two words, enter a circumflex in the third segment.
Example: To search for Harvey, Henry enter harv,hen,^.

If a personal name begins with Mc or Mac followed by an uppercase letter, enter the m and omit the c or ac.
Example: To search for MacDonald, Marion B. enter mdon,mar,b.

If a personal name begins with Mc or Mac followed by a lowercase letter, enter the name as is.
Example: To search for MacDonald, Marion B. enter mdon,mar,b.>

Enter corporate names beginning with Mc or Mac as they appear, whether or not the following letter is upper- or lowercase
Example: To search for McDpmme; Aircraft enter =mcdo,air,^.

index label format examples
Derived title (td:)
 Note: Do not include subtitles in derived title searches.
3,2,2,1 Realism in Modern Literature
The Complete Circuit Training Guide
I Believe in Unicorns
Roots
Miracle on 34th Street
Canterbury Tales: A Modern Prose Rendering
rea,in,mo,l 
com,ci,tr,g 
i,be,in,u 
roo,,, 
mir,on,34,s
can,ta,,
Derived personal name (pd:) 4,3,1 Becker, George Joseph
Sobey, Edwin J. C.
cummings, e. e.
De Groot, Adriaan
Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth
beck,geo,j 
sobe,edw,j 
cumm,e,e 
degr,adr, 
kubl,eli,
Derived corporate name (cd:) =4,3,1 Hershey Foods Corporation
American Rock Garden Society
Adrian College
Symposium on a New International Order
=hers,foo,c
=rock,gar,s
=adri,col, 
=new,int,o
Derived name/title (nd:) 4,4 Hailey Hotel
Clarke 2001: a space odyssey
hail,hote 
clar,2001

Limit derived key searches

You can limit or qualify the results of your derived key search using the qualifier labels and associated qualifiers shown in the table below. You may use a maximum of four qualifiers, but you may use only one qualifier of each type.

label description/qualifiers
mt

Format (type of material), including books, computer files, maps, mixed materials, serials, scores, sound recordings, and visual materials).

field description
Books bks
Computer files com
Continually updated resource int
Maps map
Mixed materials mix
Serials ser
Scores sco
Sound recordings rec
Visual materials vis

 

yr Year(s) of publication
 
field description
m=millennium, c=century, d=decade, y=year
Single year mcdy
Decade 199?
Century mc??
Single year and all later years mcdy-
Single year and all earlier years -1995
Range of years
  mcdy-y
  mcdy-dy
  mcdy-cdy
  mcdy-mcdy

1880-3
1880-91
1880-920
1880-2001
No date or uncertain date ????

 

mt Microform or not microform
 
field description
Microform mf

 

dl Cataloging Source
 
field description
Library of Congress/Program for Cooperative Cataloging dlc

 

Guidelines and examples

  • You may use one or more qualifiers.
  • You may type multiple qualifiers in any order.
  • You may separate multiple qualifiers with slashes (/) or you may use qualifier-label-and-qualifier pairs separated by and.

These examples illustrate how to use multiple qualifiers to search for works by author James A. Mitchner.

Qualifier type with slash with qualifier label
Type of material (mt) mich,jam,a/bks pd:mich,jam,a and mt:bks
Year(s) of publication (yr) mitch,jam,a/1953 pd:mich,jam,a and yr:1953
Microform (mt) mich,jam,a/mf pd:mich,jam,a and mt:mic
Cataloging source, Library of Congress/Program for Cooperative Cataloging (dl) mitch,jam,a/dlc pd:mich,jam,a and dl:y

Indexes based on Local Holdings (Union List) data included in WorldCat

index label examples/notes
Local Holdings - Your holdings L7: ti:libraries and L7:yes
Yes is the only valid search; limits results to records with local holdings information.
Local Holdings - State or province (name or abbreviation) L2= ti:libraries and L2="or"
ti:libraries and L2=Oregon
Limits the results to records with local holdings held by an institution in a state, province or area.
Local Holdings - City L3= ti:libraries and L3="columbus oh"
Limits the results to records with local holdings held by an institution in a specific city and state, province, or area.
Local Holdings - OCLC institution symbol L4: ti:libraries and L4:ocl
Limits the results to records with local holdings held by an institution's symbol.
Local Holdings - OCLC group symbol L5: ti:libraries and L5:oglu
Limits the results to records with local holdings held by members of profiled GAC and/or UL groups.