Search relevance indicators highlight matching search terms in the result entries. If you add an index label to your search terms, the relevant subject entries will also display in the result set.
Determine whether to retain the specified filters for subsequent searches by selecting Retain Filters. This option displays when filters have been selected to narrow your search on brief results, or when the setting is enabled by default in the service configuration.
Select Clear Filters to remove the filters currently applied to the search results.
Filter search results
You can narrow the set of results that were returned from your initial search by using the filters available in the left column of the results screen. Simply check the boxes beside the filter(s) you desire.
Filters can be used multiple times throughout a search session. Your filters can be reapplied to preserve your search context without manually having to select them for each additional search in a single session.
Note: Available filters and formats will vary depending on the selected database(s). The Audience filter will display only when Worldcat.org or WorldCat is selected as the only database in a search.
To select which filters are available, configure display order, and select custom labels, see Search Filter Settings.
Change the sort order of the results.
Select your Sorted by filter from the drop-down menu located in the upper right corner of the screen. Options include:
For more information on sort options, please see WorldCat Discovery Default Sort on Search Results.
Use this accordion to group related editions or to group variant records in the search results.
Select this box to show all records for the search.
Check this box to group variant records.
Variant records are records for the same edition but in a different language of cataloging or a duplicate record that has not yet been merged.
This setting must be enabled in Service Configuration to display in the WorldCat Discovery interface. See Search Settings, Default Grouping for more information.
Disabling the Hide duplicates filter will show a flat view or ungrouped view of the edition cluster. The flat view shows all records in the search results and does not group by work, edition, duplicate, or language of cataloging.
Note: Carefully consider the benefits of displaying the Hide duplicates filter and allowing users to ungroup variant records. Presenting an ungrouped list to patrons may present more options than desired. OCLC research and testing suggest that clustering editions and formats add efficiency to searching for most users.
Check this box to group related editions in search results.
If enabled, records in search results are grouped by work. To set Group editions and formats to be enabled by default based on the selected library scope, see Search Settings, Default Grouping.
Edition grouping brings records together that have the same:
If disabled, search results are grouped by edition and will choose one representative record for records for the same edition, but in a different language of cataloging or duplicate records that have yet to be merged.
Note: When Group editions and formats is enabled, WorldCat Discovery measures the popularity of a work using the total number of worldwide library holdings for all editions and formats of the work, not just the individual representative record for a group of editions. This boosts the relevance score of popular works when users rank their search results using the Best Match, Library, or Recency algorithms.
Users can override the default at any time and your preference will remain selected throughout your search session. This default setting can also be modified from the library search box.
Use this accordion to expand the search with related or translated terms, or by including news articles.
Enable searching across authority files to find relevant search terms, including related, variant, or deprecated search terms.
To configure this setting to appear or be selected by default, see Search Expansion Settings, Related Terms.
An information bar will appear at the top of the search results screen indicating that expanded terms were used for the search. Select the original search terms to search again without using the expanded terms. Select the include related terms link to see which related terms were used.
A user-initiated keyword search will return results from the keyword index to ensure matching phrases from uncontrolled vocabularies appear as well. The search needs to know that terms are separate in order to include related terms across authority files. For example, searching "history of the Roman empire" will not expand the search to include related terms, but the search "history" "Roman" "empire" will return results for related terms.
Search expansions will search as keywords over the appropriate indexes.
Subject headings that have been expanded with local search expansions will not present a warning message before the search is run, as the expansion should re-map the local expansion to the controlled heading. When the user clicks "We expanded your search to include related terms" they will see a warning message. When the mapped subject heading chosen for a local search expansion is considered Exclusive, it will not display to the user by default and a sensitivity message will display. Refer to Search Settings, Local Search Expansion for configuration.
To configure this setting to appear or be selected by default, see Search Expansion Settings, Translated Terms
Additional terms appear if the search term matches on the 7xx field for parallel terms occurring in the RVM Répertoire de vedettes-matière and RVMGF Répertoire de vedettes-matière Genre Form authority files.
OCLC is inviting libraries who wish to activate search expansion for news articles in their WorldCat Discovery instance to participate in an early adopter period starting 12 September 2024. We will activate this feature for any remaining WorldCat Discovery libraries on 16 December 2024.
When this feature is activated, news articles are excluded from searches by default.
Switch this toggle on to expand your search by including news articles. Toggle off to exclude news articles
Use this filter to change the library/libraries searched.
To change the display label, see Search Filter Settings. The following labels are available:
Use this filter to select from Full Text, Peer Reviewed, or Open access.
Use this filter to limit to a particular format.
To change the display label, see Search Filter Settings. The following labels are available:
Use this filter to limit to results from a single database.
To change the display label, see Search Filter Settings. The following labels are available:
Use this filter to select works by one or more authors.
To change the display label, see Search Filter Settings. The following labels are available:
The Author search filter displays authors sorted by matching record count, highest first. Selecting the Show More option to expand the filter sorts the authors alphabetically.
Use this filter to narrow the results to the last 5 years, choose a custom year range, or search a single year.
To search a single year, you must type the year in both fields. For example: from 2019 to 2019
To change the display label, see Search Filter Settings. The following labels are available:
Use this filter to narrow results to a particular language.
To change the display label, see Search Filter Settings. The following labels are available:
Use this filter to include specific subjects, such as Engineering & Technology.
For information on all divisions and categories used in the Topic filter, see OCLC Conspectus by Division/Category.
To change the display label, see Search Filter Settings. The following labels are available:
Use this filter to narrow to Juvenile and Not Juvenile audiences.
To change the display label, see Search Filter Settings. The following labels are available:
Run time: 7:48
This video demonstrates how to apply filters to search results in WorldCat Discovery.
Filters and filter labels are configured in Search Filter Settings. Default filter options display:
To refine a basic search using advanced search features, click on the Advanced Search link below the basic search box. The search terms entered in the basic search box carry over to the Search Term field on the Advanced Search screen. Additional search parameters can be added to the query on the Advanced Search screen.
When one or more copy of an item is available, all location information will display in the search results. Configure Item Availability on Search Results in Service Configuration.
When results are configured to show Automatically:
When results are configured to show On Demand:
If there are no item records or no available items, click View Details to see the detailed record and fulfillment options.