WorldCat Discovery live and recorded classes

Request closed captioning

Closed captioning is available in the US upon request with 5 business days' notice. To request closed captioning for a training session, please contact us at training@oclc.org.

Cancellation policy

In the event of low attendance, OCLC may cancel a training session. In this situation, registrants will be notified by email before the session.

Course reserves in WorldCat Discovery

Course Reserves in WorldCat Discovery allows your patrons to search materials set aside for specific academic courses or for readers' advisory lists. With this feature, library staff can create these reserve lists including items from the library’s collection, or temporary items from faculty or other sources.

Course Reserves functionality is available to libraries who use WorldShare Management Services or WorldCat Discovery Premium.

This course provides details about managing course reserves in WorldCat Discovery specifically how to:

• create course reserves
• update existing reserves lists (add items and notes/edit existing items/remove items)
• create temporary items for inclusion in reserves lists
• determine Service Configuration settings to search and display Course Reserves materials

How to manage circulation of items from Course Reserves such as updating shelving locations (single item and multiple items) and creating temporary items for check out are mentioned. Specific details about these functions can be found in WorldShare Circulation documentation. 

Library staff who configure WorldCat Discovery and maintain course reserves in that interface would benefit from this course. Circulation staff who oversee shelving location changes and inventory management may also find this information useful.

WorldCat Discovery search fundamentals

This course provides instruction on performing searches through WorldCat Discovery.

Upon completion of this session, learners will be able to execute basic and expert searches, select indexes and enter terms for guided searching on the advanced search screen and identify specific databases to search from a presented list. In addition, learners will be able to use filters and limits to refine results, perform searches for known items and identify searching differences from FirstSearch service.    

This module does not cover information about how to get started with WorldCat Discovery Services.

This course is for library staff members who want to enhance their abilities and develop new approaches to searching WorldCat and other databases that are part of WorldCat Discovery.

Register to obtain your library's custom Web address (URL) for WorldCat Discovery.

WorldCat Discovery interface features

This course provides instruction on how to use prominent interface features in WorldCat Discovery. Upon completion of this session, learners will be able to build and share resources from search results using email and record links. A review of the Staff account with the ability to store lists of resources, view MARC records, search by OCLC symbol, and link to WorldShare ILL will also be presented. This module does not cover how to get started with WorldCat Discovery. 

This course is for library staff members who want to understand the user interface features available in WorldCat Discovery and how to use these features most effectively.

WorldCat Discovery configuration: Content and staff features

This course provides instruction on how to set up institution information, enable databases and links to open access e-content and use the staff features in WorldCat Discovery.

Upon completion of this session, learners will be able to confirm their library’s location in the WorldCat registry, customize their WorldCat Discovery Web URL by adding a library logo, banner and colors and set up basic authentication through IP addresses. Learners will be able to identify default databases for their search box and enable links from WorldCat records to open access e-content. Features and benefits of using the staff account in WorldCat Discovery are reviewed. In general, patrons do not need accounts to search and see results in WorldCat Discovery. The staff account presents additional information for library staff.

This course is for institutions that are getting started with WorldCat Discovery and want to optimize the service for their patrons and staff.  Other staff members who administer online resources may find this content useful for configuring WorldCat Discovery for their institution.

WorldCat Discovery configuration: Patron-facing features

This course provides instruction on how to personalize the WorldCat Discovery interface and enhance the interface for your library patrons and staff. 

Upon completion of this session, learners will understand how to personalize and display links to information specific to the library’s site, such as a chat widget and a sign in screen for remote users.  Learners will be able to set display and search settings, select vocabularies for related searches, customize search filters, configure a fulfillment link, and, create a custom search box to host on your library website, in library guides, or other locations.  

This course is for institutions that want to add patron-specific features to their WorldCat Discovery service. Other staff members who administer online resources may find this content useful for configuring WorldCat Discovery for their institution.

Some familiarity with the WorldCat Discovery user interface is recommended. Access to the OCLC Service Configuration is strongly recommended.