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Relevancy and Scoping

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Learn how to configure the relevancy and scoping settings for WorldCat Discovery.

To access this screen, sign in Service Configuration, open the WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local left navigation, select Relevancy and Scoping.

To make changes to your institution, contact OCLC Support. Any changes to your institution information will not be reflected in WorldCat.org until the following business day (approximately 9 a.m. US Eastern time). Items held by your library will temporarily not be displayed until the next business day.

OCLC symbols that represent your institution (1st Level of Relevancy)

OCLC Symbols

Items held by your OCLC institution symbols will be sorted first. A patron searching on your WorldCat.org will be affiliated with institutions at this level. The libraries represented by these symbols must share a catalog in order to return holdings and availability.

Display name

This name will appear on the Held by line in the search results.

  Caution: Do not make changes to these settings.  If you would like to make changes, please contact OCLC Support.

2nd/3rd Level of Relevancy (optional)

In your WorldCat Discovery or WorldCat Local, items held at these levels will sort immediately after the level configured in the 1st Level of Relevancy (above). This is usually a consortia catalog, or a group that lends items to your patrons. If a different scope hasn’t been selected by a user, WorldCat Discovery or WorldCat Local will limit results to items held by the configured default scoping level.  Note: This selection applies only when sorting by Library. It does not apply to Best Match or Recency sort methods.

 Caution: Do not make changes to these settings.  If you would like to make changes, please contact OCLC Support.

Default Relevancy

Leave the Relevancy type set for Relevancy 1 (default). At this time, Relevancy 2 is not implemented in WorldCat.org.

WorldCat Local Default Scoping Level

In WorldCat Local, scoping gives users the ability to limit results to items held by your institution, or items held by your institution and those held by Libraries Worldwide. Choose the default scoping level you prefer from the drop-down list. The user has the option of overriding this setting.

WorldCat Discovery Default Scoping Level

In WorldCat Discovery, users have the option to limit results to items held by your institution, partnering groups, and those held by Libraries Worldwide. The user has the option of overriding this setting.

  • Libraries Worldwide (results will include both items held by your institution and items held by libraries worldwide)
  • Your Library (results are limited to items held by your institution)

WorldCat Local Default Sort on Search Results

  • Default sort: You may define how search results are sorted by default when initially displayed. A user may change this setting to view other sort options, but every time a search result is initially displayed, the default sort setting will always be selected. Choose your default sort level from the drop-down list.
    •  Note: The WorldCat Local default sort is no longer supported by WorldCat Discovery.
  • Display the top 5 relevancy results in addition to the “Library and Relevance” results (known item searching): You may also choose to display the top five relevancy results for a search in WorldCat Local. If enabled, WorldCat Local will display the top five most relevant items from any library, followed by the library and relevance.
    •  Note: Configuring the top five relevancy results will have no impact on the default sort order. If you’ve configured a sort order other than Library and Relevance it will continue to be the default and the top five relevancy results will only display when the user manually sorts to Library and Relevance using the drop-down in WorldCat Local. The user can collapse the top 5 results if they do not want them.

WorldCat Discovery Default Sort on Search Results

You may define how search results are sorted by default when initially displayed. A user may change this setting to view other sort options, but every time a search result is initially displayed, the default sort setting will always be selected. Choose your default sort level from the list.

 Note: The WorldCat Local default sort is no longer supported by WorldCat Discovery.

Sort option Behavior
Best Match
  • Blends boosts on Title, Author, Subject and Abstract, while considering word order and position.
  • Prefers recent over older materials and popular over rare materials with boosts on Publication Date and Worldwide Holdings.
  • Prefers materials from local and group collections, boosting those over materials from other libraries worldwide.
Recency Shares all features of the Best Match sort except that it dramatically boosts more recently published materials. Recency demands more recent material.
Library Shares all features of the Best Match sort except that it dramatically boosts materials from local and group collections. Library demands local collections over group and group over worldwide.
Author (A to Z)

Sorts by special characters or numbers in the first name, then A to Z by last name.
Date (Newest)

Sorts chronologically by publication year with newest items listed first.
Date (Oldest) Sorts chronologically by publication year with oldest items listed first.
Most Widely Held Presents an "unclustered" view of search results with an emphasis on Worldwide Holdings in a blend of Date, Title, and Author. Use this sort option to view best results for interlibrary loan requests.
Title Sorts by special characters, then alphabetically by Title. Only the article "the" is ignored.