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Search for entities

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Discover how to search for entities in WorldCat Entities and view the search results page.

Overview

The search box in WorldCat Entities is available on all screens of the user interface and allows you to quickly find WorldCat Person and Work entities. Entering a search term in WorldCat Entities will search for entities by their label, description, and aliases.

Search for entities 

  1. Click in the search box near the top of your screen and type in your search term.
  2. Click Search or press <Enter>.
    • You can view 10-100 results per page. To set the number of results you see per page, expand Results per Page at the bottom of the list to choose a quantity:
      • 10
      • 25
      • 50
      • 75
      • 100
    • If the search results extend past the chosen quantity, use the navigation links at the bottom of the list to move between screens.
  3. On the search results screen, click on an Entity Label to open the entity viewer.

View search results

Entity search results - Image
Overview of the search results screen for a search of Maya Angelou

1. Results 

The number of results you receive and your place in the results list appears at the top and bottom of the results list.

2. Sort by 

Use the options in the Sort by drop-down list to determine how your search results are sorted.

Select how to sort your search results from the Sort by list.

  • Entity Label (Ascending) - Lists entities by entity label in alphabetical order.
  • Entity Label (Descending) - Lists entities by entity label in reverse alphabetical order.
  • Entity Type (Ascending) - Lists entities by entity type in alphabetical order.
  • Entity Type (Descending) - Lists entities by entity type in reverse alphabetical order.
  • Relevance (default) - Relevance is the result of a ranking scheme.

3. Facets 

Use the facets to filter your results by entity type. A facet will only show if there is a result of that entity type returned. There are four facets:

  • Work
  • Person 
  • Place
  • Ontology

4. Search results 

The search results table contains the following columns:

  • Entity Label - Displays the entity label as defined in the Key Information of the entity.
    • Click on the Copy URI icon (A blue button with the text Copy URI) to copy the entity's Universal Resource Identifier.
    • Click on the entity label to:
      • Open an entity to view more details.
  • Entity Type - Displays the entity type.
  • Description - Displays a brief description of the entity, in the set language.