Note: Browsing is not available in WorldCat Discovery.
Browsing scans an index with the intent of finding a matched term or the closest matching term, rather than retrieving records. Selecting a term in a browse results list then retrieves the relevant record(s).
Each index description notes whether the index supports searching only or both searching and browsing.
Browse WorldCat using either:
The system returns a list of terms showing a match or the closest match, along with terms that precede and follow the matching term. When you open an entry on the list, you see the record or a list of records retrieved for that term.
Index name | Browsable index type(s) |
Index name | Browsable index type(s) |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
Access Method | am: | LCCN | ln: or nl: ln= or nl= |
|
Author | au: au= auw= |
LCSH | hl: hl= hlw= |
|
Barcode (LHR) | bq: | Music/Publisher Number | mn: or mu: mn= or mu= |
|
Branch/Shelving Location (LHR) | b8: | Name | au: au= auw= |
|
Call Number (LHR) | l5: | NLM Class Number | lm: lm= |
|
Canadian Class Number | ca: | Personal Name | pn: pn= pnw= |
|
Canadian Subject | he: he= hew= |
Personal Name Subject | naw= | |
Corporate/Conference Name | cnw= | Publisher | pb: pb= |
|
Corporate/Conference Subject | ncw= | Publisher Number | mn: or mu: mn= or mu= |
|
Dewey Decimal Class Number | dd: | RVM Subject | hr: hr= hrw= |
|
Government Document Number | gn: | Series | se: se= sew= |
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ISBN | bn: or nb: bn= or nb= |
Standard Number | sn: sn= |
|
ISSN | in: or ns: in= or ns= |
Subject | su: su= suw= or sa= |
|
Keyword | kw: | Title | ti: ti= tiw= |
|
LC Class Number | lc: lc= |
Uniform Title | utw= |
Follow these general guidelines for browsing:
Index labels and search terms can be upper- or lowercase or a combination.
If you do not include an index label, the system uses the Keyword index (kw:) as the default.
Note: Derived searches are not available in WorldCat Discovery or WorldShare.
Derived searching reduces the number of keystrokes you enter.
A derived search uses a specific number of initial characters from sequential words in a name or title.
The following table describes the four types of derived searches:
Index | Index label | Number of initial letters and commas | Minimum key (see general notes) | Index-specific notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Derived: Corporate/Conference Name | cd: | =4,3,1 | 4,1,blank | Leading equal sign (=) distinguishes this index from personal name index if you enter without a label. Use in conjunction with a comma (,) and circumflex (^). Example: =mcdo,air,^ |
Name/Title | nd: | 4,4 | 4,4 | For records without 1xx fields, minimum key can be blank,4. |
Derived: Personal Name | pd: | 4,3,1 | 4,1,blank | |
Derived: Title | td: | 3,2,2,1 | None | Cannot use circumflex. |
General notes:
|
Omit the following words as the first segment only from a corporate/conference name and from the name portion of a name/title search.
& a Alabama Alaska American an and Arizona Arkansas Association at Australia Board Bureau California Canada College Colloquium Colorado Commission Committee Commonwealth Conference |
Congress Connecticut Council Delaware Department Dept. Division East Federal Florida for France Georgia Great Britain Hawaii House Idaho Illinois in India Indiana Institute International |
Iowa Joint Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Meeting Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana National Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North North Carolina |
North Dakota of Office Ohio Oklahoma on Oregon Organization Parliament Pennsylvania Rhode Island School Seminar Senate Society South South Carolina South Dakota State Subcommittee Symposium Tennessee Texas |
the U.N. U. N. United Nations United States University U.S. U. S. Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West West Virginia Wisconsin Workshop Wyoming |
Examples
Omit initial stopwords in search for... | Enter search as... |
---|---|
Corporate author Great Britain Forestry Commission of map(s) published in 1985 | cd:fore,com,/1985 |
Corporate author United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights | cd:econ,soc,a |
Corporate name Indiana Supreme Court and title Race and gender fairness | nd:supr,race |
Omit initial articles in the following types of searches:
If a word listed as an initial article on the Library of Congress website is the first word of a search but has a different meaning (for example, ein or un used to mean one, or thé used to mean tea), include the word in a search.
In cataloging, a second indicator of 1 or higher in a field indicates how many initial character spaces to ignore for indexing, filing, and sorting.
See a comprehensive list of initial articles on the Library of Congress website.
When searching for Internet URLs in relation to the 856 field, use mt:url to see if the 856 field exists in an Internet-only resource. It is also possible to search mt:web to retrieve any record with any kind of 856 field. Also, see Access Method for information about searching URLs and the 856 field.
To give flexibility in search strategy and control over the results, OCLC provides various levels of searching, from simplified to complex.
Search level name | Description | ||
---|---|---|---|
Connexion | FirstSearch and WorldShare Collection Manager query collections | WorldShare and WorldCat Discovery | |
Basic | Basic | Basic |
|
Guided | Advanced | Advanced |
|
Command-line search | Expert | Expert |
|
Examples of searches in this guide are given in full search syntax (most complex format). From full syntax examples, you can extrapolate the parts of a search you would enter or select in boxes and lists to construct a basic or guided form of the search.
Caution: Although constructed as "real" WorldCat searches that product actual results, the examples in this guide can only illustrate the principles of searching. Because of the dynamic nature of WorldCat, search examples used here may no longer retrieve records or may retrieve too many records.
The Connexion client and FirstSearch interfaces support all UTF-8 Unicode defined characters for non-Latin script search terms, which includes the following non-Latin, MARC-8 scripts: Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, and Korean, as well as all of the UTF-8 Unicode character sets. For a complete list of supported scripts, see the Unicode character code charts.
Note: Do not construct derived searches using non-Latin script data. Non-Latin script is not indexed in derived searches.
WorldCat Discovery allows you to search and sort using Modern Standard Arabic.
WorldCat Discovery returns the same results regardless of whether users enter search terms with or without diacritics such as hamza “ء” or madda “آ”. For example, we treat the following as equivalent:
For title searches, results are the same with or without preceding definite articles or prefixes. For example:
WorldCat Discovery treats characters the same whether elongated or not. For example:
Arabic Query Input |
Comments |
Meaning in English |
Expected Results |
---|---|---|---|
انسان |
word without diacritics and leading article |
human |
4 queries with same output |
إنسان |
word with diacritics and no leading article |
human |
|
الانسان |
word without diacritics and with leading article |
The human |
|
الإنسان |
word with diacritics and leading article |
The human |
|
|
|
|
|
مدينة |
Same word meaning written in 3 variations |
City |
3 queries with same output |
مَدِينَة |
City |
||
مدينه |
City |
||
|
|
|
|
مـديـنــــــــــــــــة |
With and without the "Kashida" |
City |
2 queries with same output |
مدينة |
City |
||
|
|
|
|
آنسة |
With and without "Madda" on the first letter A |
Ms. |
2 queries with same output |
انسة |
Ms. |
||
|
|
|
|
المدينة |
Word with leading article |
The city |
2 queries with same output |
والمدينة |
Word with leading article + and "و" |
And the city |
|
|
|
|
|
بالمدينة |
3 different variations with prefixes |
In the city |
3 queries with same output |
فالمدينة |
Then the city |
||
للمدينة |
For the city |
The following table outlines the data elements and fields available to search for LHR data in Connexion, FirstSearch, WorldShare, and WorldCat Discovery.
Data element | Index label(s) | LHR field(s) |
---|---|---|
Barcode | bq: kw: |
852 p 863 p 864 p 865 p 876 p |
Call numbers | nu: kw: | 852 k h i j l m |
Item-level notes | nt: kw: |
506 z 852 z 856 z 863 z 864 z 865 z 866 z 867 z 868 z 876 z 877 z 878 z |
Shelving location | b8: kw: | 852 a b c |
In all searches, do not enter spaces between the index label and punctuation or between punctuation and the search term. Example: kw:software
The following table of punctuation, diacritics, and special characters describes how to treat each character when you construct WorldCat search or browse terms.
Note: For Non-Latin script characters, see Non-Latin/non-Roman scripts.
Name | Character | How to treat in search and browse terms |
---|---|---|
æ or Æ | Substitute the letters ae. | |
Acute | Omit and close up the space. | |
Alif/modifier letter right half ring | Omit and close up the space. | |
Almost equal to | Omit and leave a space. | |
Ampersand | Type. | |
Apostrophe |
|
|
Asterisk | Omit and leave a space. | |
At sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Ayn | Omit and close up the space. | |
Backslash |
|
|
Brackets and bracketed information |
Omit and close up the space.
|
|
Breve | Omit and close up the space. | |
British pound | Omit and leave a space. | |
Candrabindu | Omit and close up the space. | |
Cedilla | Omit and close up the space. | |
Circle above letter (angstrom) | Omit and close up the space. | |
Circle below letter | Omit and close up the space. | |
Circumflex, spacing or nonspacing |
|
|
Colon | Omit and leave a space. | |
Combining double grave accent | Omit and close up the space. | |
Combining retroflex hook below | Omit and close up the space. | |
Combining inverted breve below | Omit and close up the space. | |
Combining macron below | Omit and close up the space. | |
Comma |
|
|
Copyright sign | Omit and close up the space. | |
Crossed d | Substitute the letter d. | |
Curly brackets | Omit and close up the space. | |
Dagger | Omit and leave a space. | |
Degree sign | Omit and close up the space. | |
Delimiter | Omit, along with the single letter or number following it, and leave a space. | |
Division sign | Type. | |
Dollar sign | Omit and leave a space. If used as a delimiter, also omit the single letter or number following it. | |
Dot below letter | Omit and close up the space. | |
Double acute | Omit and close up the space. | |
Double dot below letter | Omit and close up the space. | |
Double tilde, first and second half | Omit and close up the space. | |
Double underscore | Omit and close up the space. | |
Downwards arrow | Omit and leave a space. | |
Equal sign |
|
|
Eszett | Enter eszett, or enter a double s: ss. | |
Eth | Substitute the letter d. | |
Euro | Omit and leave a space. | |
Exclamation point | Omit and leave a space. | |
Feminine ordinal indicator | Substitute the letter a. | |
Grave, spacing or nonspacing | Omit and close up the space, except include spacing grave in URLs. | |
Greater than or equal to | Omit and leave a space. | |
Greater than sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Hacek | Omit and close up the space. | |
High comma center | Omit and close up the space. | |
High comma off center | Omit and close up the space. | |
Hooked o | Substitute the letter o. | |
Hooked u | Substitute the letter u. | |
Hyphen (minus sign) | Omit and leave a space. | |
Icelandic thorn | Substitute the letters th. | |
Infinity | Omit and leave a space. | |
Integral | Omit and leave a space. | |
Inverted (right) cedilla | Omit and close up the space. | |
Inverted exclamation point | Omit and close up the space. | |
Inverted question mark | Omit and close up the space. | |
Latin capital letter ENG | Substitute the letter n. | |
Latin capital letter ETH | Substitute the letter d. | |
Latin capital letter EZH | Substitute the letter z. | |
Latin capital letter G with stroke | Substitute the letter g. | |
Latin capital letter H with stroke | Substitute the letter h. | |
Latin capital letter L with middle dot | Substitute the letter l. | |
Latin capital letter T with stroke | Substitute the letter t. | |
Latin script letters | Type in upper- or lowercase. | |
Latin small letter eng | Substitute the letter n. | |
Latin small letter ezh | Substitute the letter z. | |
Latin small letter g with stroke | Substitute the letter g. | |
Latin small letter h with stroke | Substitute the letter h. | |
Latin small letter kra | Substitute the letter q. | |
Latin small letter l with middle dot | Substitute the letter l. | |
Latin small letter long s | Substitute the letter s. | |
Latin small letter t with stroke | Substitute the letter t. | |
Left hook | Omit and close up the space. | |
Left right arrow | Omit and leave a space. | |
Leftwards arrow | Omit and leave a space. | |
Less than or equal to | Omit and leave a space. | |
Less than sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Ligature, left and right | Omit and close up the space. | |
Macron | Omit and close up the space. | |
Masculine ordinal indicator | Substitute the letter o. | |
Miagkii znak | Omit and close up the space. | |
Micro sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Middle dot | Omit and close up the space. | |
Multiplication sign | Type. | |
Not equal to | Omit and leave a space. | |
Not sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Number sign | Omit and leave a space.
Note: WorldShare and WorldCat Discovery automatically search #searchword as searchword (e.g., #girlboss is searched as girlboss). |
|
Numerals | Type. | |
œ or Œ | Substitute the letters oe. | |
Parentheses | Omit and close up the space. Use only when nesting Boolean searches. | |
Patent mark/subscript patent mark | Omit and leave a space. | |
Percent sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Period (decimal point) |
|
|
Phonogram copyright | Omit and close up the space. | |
Pilcrow sign (paragraph sign) | Omit and leave a space. | |
Plus sign |
|
|
Plus/minus sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Polish L | Substitute the letter I (ell). | |
Pseudo question mark | Omit and close up the space. | |
Question mark | Omit and leave a space. | |
Quotation marks |
|
|
Right hook | Omit and close up the space. | |
Rightwards arrow | Omit and leave a space. | |
Scandinavian o | Substitute the letter o. | |
Script L lowercase | Substitute the letter l (ell). | |
Section sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Semicolon | Omit and leave a space. | |
Slash |
|
|
Space |
|
|
Square root | Omit and leave a space. | |
Subfield delimiter | (See delimiter). | |
Subscript minus sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Subscript numerals | Substitute the numbers 0 - 9. | |
Subscript parentheses | Omit and close up the space. | |
Subscript plus sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Superior dot | Omit and close up the space. | |
Superscript minus sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Superscript numerals | Substitute the numbers 0 - 9. | |
Superscript parentheses | Omit and close up the space. | |
Superscript plus sign | Omit and leave a space. | |
Tilde, spacing and nonspacing | Omit and close up the space, except include spacing tilde in URLs. | |
Turkish i | Substitute the letter i. | |
Tverdyi znak | Omit and close up the space. | |
Umlaut (dieresis) | Omit and close up the space. | |
Underscore, spacing and nonspacing | Omit and close up the space, except include spacing underscore in URLs. | |
Up down arrow | Omit and leave a space. | |
Upandhmaniya | Omit and close up the space. | |
Upwards arrow | Omit and leave a space. |
Note: This feature is not enabled in Connexion, FirstSearch, and WorldShare Collection Manager query collections.
Stemming is where each term in a query is treated as a logical OR of the various word forms of the term, so that all records that contain any form of the term are included in the result set. For example, the query ball would be treated as if it were actually ball OR balls OR balled OR balling.
Stemming works with (unanchored) phrase searching "blue dog" would be equivalent to "blue dog" OR "bluer dog" ... OR "blue dogs" OR "blue dogged" ... OR "bluer dogs" OR "bluer dogged" ... etc. dog AND 608295448 returns the record with title field "Dogged hearts".
Stop words (also called Common word exclusions) are common words that the system ignores in some types of searches. You can omit them from search items. To use any of these words as search terms, enclose them in quotation marks.
The lists of stop words in WorldShare and WorldCat Discovery are specific to the following indexes:
aan de (article) en een (article) het (article) in naar |
niet of op uit voor wat |
Note: These stop words include terms from other languages that will also need quotes to retain the search term within a search, including: en, in, of. |
a (article) am an (article) and are at be |
from had have he her his how |
it not of on or that the (article) |
un une was which with you |
à an at/ât av du (article) de des (article) |
la (article) le (article) les (article) on or thé |
Note: These stop words include terms from other languages that will also need quotes to retain the search term within a search, including: an, ât, av, de, or, thé. |
als am an auf aus das (article) dass der (article) des (article) |
dich du er es he her ihr ihre |
im in ist kein mein mich mir mit |
sie sein that was wer wie wird von |
Note: There can be terms that have been made stop words for other languages that need quotes to retain the search term within a search including the word "not". |
des det (article) du en (article) er et (article) fra før he |
her is la le les og om on sein |
som to ved which |
Note: These stop words include terms from other languages that will also need quotes to retain the search term within a search, including: and, are, be, by, des, is, le, les, on, to, which. |
aquel aquellas aquello aquellos esa sol del e el (article) ellas |
ellos esa esas ese eso esos las (article) lo (article) los (article) |
mas me ni o para pero por que se |
si un (article) una (article) unas (article) y yo |
The list of stop words in Connexion, FirstSearch, and WorldShare Collection Manager query collections is specific to the following text-rich indexes:
& a am an and are as at be but by for from |
had have has he her his how if in into is it its |
near not of on or she so than that the their there this |
to un une was were when which with would you |