Learner guide: Connexion client 2 - Bibliographic searching

General guidelines

• The Quick Search box on the toolbar and the Command Line search in the Search WorldCat box are equivalent.  

• When using the Command Line search, use index labels with search terms.    

• The Keyword/Numeric search offers guided searching with the ability to choose indexes from the drop-down lists.  

• Indexes that display in the Keyword/Numeric search can be customized to include frequently used indexes or to display the complete alphabetical list of indexes with their labels. 

Choose the best search

When searching the WorldCat database, consider: 

• What information is available? 

• Do you have the item in hand or are you ordering the item? 

• Does the item have a number, such as an ISBN, ISSN, etc.? 

• If there isn’t a number, what else can you search by? 

• How easy is it to determine author, title, publisher, etc.?

• Almost always: try a number search first. 

Basic MARC fields for matching

• Consult Bibliographic Formats and Standards, Chapter 4, When to input a new record  https://www.oclc.org/bibformats/en/input.html for field-by-field guidelines and other details. 

Numeric searches 

ISBN (International Standard Book Number) 

The index label, bn: is optional 

• Remove dashes (e.g., enter 1-5654-556-2 as 156545562) 
• Include X in final digit if present (e.g., enter 0-590-42057-X as 059042057X)  

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) 

Use index label in: 

• Include hyphen (e.g., enter 0363-0277 as 0363-0277)  
• Include X in final digit (e.g., enter 2265-564X as 2265-564X)   

OCLC Number 

Use * or # or index label no: 

• OCLC numbers do not have punctuation  
• Displays after OCLC in Connexion  
• Exported in 001 and 035 fields 

Keyword/Numeric searching

Phrase searching

Phrase searches (=) 

Index ends with = 

• Enter multiple words in order from beginning of first subfield  
• Enter all data from subfield or truncate with an asterisk *  

Whole phrase searches (w=) 

Index ends with w= 

1. Enter phrase in order from beginning of first subfield of an indexed field, include all words from subsequent subfields  
2. Enter all data from field or truncate with an asterisk (*)  

Phrase (ti=) or whole phrase (tiw=) searches for titles  

• Omit initial articles (a, an, the) and equivalents in other languages 

Phrase or whole phrase searches for personal names  

• (au=  auw=  pn=  pnw= ) 
• Enter last name first 
• Include comma between last name and first name: example: pn=crutcher, chris
• If entering birth/death dates, omit comma preceding date : example: auw=smith, joe 1902-1937
• Use truncation symbol (*) if unsure of middle initial, dates in name example: pnw=churchill, winston 1874*)