Skip to main content
OCLC Support

Known issues

This page lists known issues in the WorldCat Discovery application. Availability dates are subject to change.

Please see the OCLC System Status Dashboard for active issues.

Updated:  March 15, 2023

Current Issues  

Issue Details
Shelf Browse: The shelf browse feature on item detail records intermittently does not display results. Targeted Resolution: TBA
Worldcat Dissertations and Theses database: Searching for records in this database will return zero results. Please search the worldcat.org database and use the Format facet "Thesis, Dissertation" under Book to narrow results. Targeted Resolution: TBA
Broken permalinks: Article permalinks from some databases no longer resolve to content. Many of these links will be fixed, but periodically, OCLC must remove content at the request of publishers/providers which may permanently break a permalink. Targeted Resolution: March 2023
Date format: Some locales are incorrectly displaying US Date format. Targeted Resolution: TBA
Searches using wildcards: Wildcard and truncated searches are returning inconsistent results. Targeted Resolution: TBA
Peer Reviewed Filter: When this filter is selected, the search results are not displaying all peer-reviewed resources that a library may hold.  Targeted Resolution: TBA
Date (Newest First) sort: For some search results, some older materials are sorted first, above those published more recently.   Targeted Resolution: TBA

New result view (Search Alerts Beta Experience): Clustering options should be available in this view, but is not currently functional. 

  • Expected outcome:  All new results will display in the “show all” flat view. Users should be able to cluster the result set as needed.  
  • Workaround: Do not select a different view, other than the “show all” flat view. 
Targeted Resolution: TBA

Search alert notification (Search Alerts Beta Experience): If the subject of an email exceeds 250 characters, the user will not receive any notifications when new items match their search query. 

  • Expected outcome: Limit the Subject of an email to 250 characters so that notifications will be delivered accordingly. Search alert emails contain the following information so we will need to look at adjusting character limits to accommodate:  <number of new items> new items for '<alert name>' from <institution name> 
  • Workaround: Create search alerts with shorter names.  
Targeted Resolution: March 2023
Full-text embargo: For some articles, held-by statements are not honoring the full-text embargo period Targeted Resolution: TBA
Branch scoping: In some instances, holdings display incorrectly when search is scoped to the branch that holds them  Targeted Resolution: TBA
Incorrect holdings: For some items, incorrect holdings display depending on what index the user searches. This could result in full text, hold, and ILL links showing up when a record is viewed from search results but not when it is viewed via the "Share" link. There are multiple fixes for this issue. Targeted Resolution: TBA

 

Fixed issues

Fixed issues - table
Issue Fix date
Search Error: For some keyword and title searches, users receive an error message instead of search results. Some of the search terms reported include: fluoxetine, fentanyl, mirtazapine, sertraline, escitalopram, tamoxifen, letrozole, ivermectin, carbasalate, the consultant’s toolkit, peaches, paroxetine, Missouri River Basin Studies. March 2023
Saving changes in service configuration February 2023

Potential data loss (Search Alerts Beta Experience): If a user has received a new result email, THEN turns the alert off in My Account AND turns it back on, the “see all new items” button will no longer resolve correctly. User will receive a message that indicates “This link is no longer valid”. 

February 2023
New result view (Search Alerts Beta Experience): Some functionality will be disabled in this view to indicate to the user that they are viewing a list of new items vs typical discovery experience. Since this list of new items is not a user generated search query, the following features will not have any impact in this view: Save Search, Create Alert, Retain Filters, Sort, and Expand this Search. February 2023
Locale-based date display October 2022

Multiple e-links

June 2022
Date formatting in availability display March 16, 2022
Course Reserves that contain items from more than one database display an Oops! Page so users are unable to access the item details page.  January 10, 2022
Any search that contains a blank IIIF image will create an error for the entire search results page: "There was an error when displaying your record". October 29, 2021
Some users are reporting that when they leverage the "Share" action and RABL from Discovery, their emails are being sent to spam/junk folder.  October 29, 2021
Permalinks for some records fail with an error message: "There was an error when displaying your record".  October 27, 2021
Some KB links are not appearing for articles that are held.

October 27, 2021

When WMS institutions have configured the "Display hold notes field on Specific Copy/Volume requests to not display on place holds" in the service configuration Place Hold/Request Item module, WorldCat Discovery does not honor the setting. December 16, 2020
When using a search box generated by the service configuration and no results are found, some users cannot successfully select the hyperlink in the informational search bar titled "Do you want to scope up to libraries worldwide"  Workaround: There are two workarounds. If no change to the search box is desired, users can select libraries Worldwide from the facets and filters on the right side of the screen. Alternately, users can adjust the default scope of the search box to be Libraries Worldwide
Branch holding display does not appear when search results are ungrouped

Workaround: Enable grouped display of results when searching branches.

When the filter for the grouped display of results is disabled and only a branch is selected, the “held by” statement displays information for Level 1 Library instead of the selected branch.

"Held by" statement for titles under embargo

Update: As of 12/17/19 we have resolved this issue for most types of Discovery index searches. We are continuing to work on resolving this issue for the no: index search.

In WorldCat Discovery, when an article displays a knowledge base link that has an embargo period or moving wall of coverage, links will correctly display or not display in alliance with the coverage information in your knowledge base title. However, the "Held by" statement uses different logic. It is a known issue that the statement might appear for items not yet available, including those that correctly do not surface links.
 
Similarly, if a journal title in your knowledge base has multiple coverage ranges with gaps in coverage, articles that surface in Discovery search results that fall within the gap of coverage will have a "Held by" statement. 

Note: For proper link display, your settings must be correct:

In WorldShare Collection Manager, Institution Settings > Coverage > Use Coverage to Determine Holdings should be set to Yes In OCLC Service Configuration, under Default Databases and Licensed Content, Treat as held should be disabled for your selections
WMS Institutions with a single pick up location unable to submit place hold requests if the location is not enabled as default in service configuration. October 28, 2020
Removing an item from an existing course removes all titles. August 5, 2020
Editions and Formats on detailed views sort by Library and Least Recent not working correctly. June 6, 2020
Spelling suggestions temporarily disabled. March, 2020
When Level 1 Library scope and a branch scope are both selected, the “held by” statement displays Level 1 Library information rather than branch information. February 27, 2020
When the WorldCat database is saved as the only default database in the metasearch content area of Service Configuration, users are unable to use the no: index to search OCLC numbers. December 19, 2019
On the brief search results page, some branch filters initially display under the “Held by Library” filter, and then disappear. December 19, 2019
Some users are unable to save new filter controls in Service Configuration at worldcat.org/config>WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local>Settings UI. December 19, 2019
Selecting a specific database from the "Databases" facet on brief results is not currently working. July 10, 2019
Images with unsecured URLS from CONTENTdm hosted sites are not displaying in WorldCat Discovery. April 17, 2019
Subsequent ISSN or ISBN searches on the A - Z platform display previous search results. When browsing collections, journal title previews display previous collection titles. February 21, 2019
Some members have reported odd search results when querying more than one database.

January 25, 2019

The January 2019 feature other locally-held formats on search results presents some users with the error page "Oops. Something went wrong."  January 22, 2019
Intermittent issues with linking to records from within the Editions and Formats accordion on detailed views of WorldCat Discovery.

January 18, 2019

Users who have the role of WorldCat Discovery Staff may notice Editions and Formats on detailed views of WorldCat Discovery not loading when signed into WorldCat Discovery.

December 14, 2018

 

 Note: Bug fixes are included in release notes when they are part of a product release. To find recent bug fixes:

  1. Open a WorldCat Discovery release note.
  2. Expand the Table of contents and click Bug Fixes.

    bugfixes.png