WorldCat Discovery Release Notes, 23 June 2025
Release Date: 23 June 2025
Introduction
This release of WorldCat Discovery includes the following enhancement::
- Get more accurate search results with a spelling suggestions pilot
Recommended actions
With this release, libraries using WorldShare Management Services (WMS), WorldCat Discovery Premium, or a group catalog now have spelling suggestions enabled for searches that return no results. However, libraries that participated in the 2023 spelling suggestions pilot and turned this feature OFF will retain their existing OFF setting.
If you are an eligible library that would like to see spelling suggestions for searches that return no results but are not seeing them, please check your configuration setting in Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Search Settings > Search Defaults.
New feature
Get more accurate search results with a spelling suggestions pilot
Pilot overview
Eligibility and scope
- Available to libraries using WorldShare Management Services (WMS), WorldCat Discovery Premium, or a group catalog.
- Applies only to searches that return no results during the pilot phase.
- Libraries that participated in the 2023 pilot retain their existing ON/OFF settings.
Pilot details
- Spelling suggestions are designed to help users correct misspellings, particularly in multilingual environments.
- Pilot feedback will be one of several factors informing OCLC's decision on the future of AI-powered spelling suggestions, including potential expansion to all searches.
Key features
- AI-powered: Uses models trained to recognize misspellings across languages and provide high-confidence corrections.
- Multilingual support: Evaluates the language of the query to reduce mismatched corrections (e.g., avoiding French suggestions for English searches).
- User-friendly display:
- Suggestions are displayed in an informational alert at the top of search results.
- Suggested corrections appear in bold within the full search query.
- The amended query is shown as a clickable link, allowing users to easily search with the corrected terms.
Configuration
- To enable or disable the feature, navigate to: Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Search Settings > Search Defaults.
Important links
Product website
More product information can be found here.
WorldCat Discovery events
Support website(s)
Support information for this product and related products can be found at:
Include Request ID with problem reports
When reporting an issue with WorldCat Discovery, it is extremely helpful to include the Request ID. The Request ID is found at the bottom of the screen on which the issue occurred. Including this information allows us to directly trace what happened on the request we are troubleshooting.
