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WorldCat holdings audience levels

Learn how WMS libraries can view and manage WorldCat holdings audience levels in WorldShare Record Manager.

Overview

WorldCat holdings audience levels allow WorldShare Management Services (WMS) libraries to control who can see if they have specific titles or copies of an item in their collection. By assigning a specific level to a holding, you can suppress the holding from the general public.

You can specify at the title or copy level which of your holdings are displayed to:

  • Library staff
  • Library staff and library patrons
  • Everyone within a library's instance of WorldCat discovery
  • All WorldCat libraries

All WMS libraries are initially set up with WorldCat holdings audience levels enabled. If you would like the WorldCat holdings audience level asset removed so that you will not see audience level-related functionality in WMS, please contact OCLC Support.

 Note: WorldCat.org will only display holdings set to the All Users audience level. 

Enable display of audience levels in institution settings

Institution settings in Record Manager determine which audience levels staff can assign to their collections and what appears in the relevant dropdown lists. They also determine the default audience level.

You must have the Cataloging ADMIN role assigned to your account in order to view and edit Institution Settings in WorldShare Record Manager. Only audience levels that are enabled in the institution settings will show up on the pages where they can be assigned or modified.

  1. In the left navigation, click Institution Settings.
  2. Using the checkboxes, specify which audience levels to enable throughout WMS for bibliographic records and LHRs.
  3. (Optional) Use the Default selection column to choose a default audience level for bibliographic records and LHRs other than All Users.

Audience levels

You can assign any of the following audience levels for the display of titles (bib records) and copies (LHRs) in WorldCat.

Audience level Description
My Library Staff

Display to library staff in the WorldShare user interface and when authenticated as staff in WorldCat Discovery

  • Staff must be authenticated with a WorldCat Discovery Staff or WorldCat Discovery Admin role to view records in WorldCat Discovery.  
My Authenticated Users Display to library staff and users who have logged in with their WorldCat Discovery credentials or are recognized by IP address
My Library Users Display to everyone within my instance of WorldCat Discovery
All Users Display to everyone using WorldCat

Bibliographic and local holdings record level relationships

Because audience levels can be assigned on both the bibliographic record and the local holding record, it is important to consider the visibility relationships between the two.

Bibliographic holdings Local holdings records
  • Always have an audience level
  • By default, the audience level is All Users
    • If the record does not contain LHRs, the default audience level can be reassigned
    • If the record contains LHRs, the holding will reflect the most publicly visible LHR audience level
    • If all LHRS are removed and the bibliographic holding is retained, the audience level will revert to All Users
  • Always have an audience level
  • By default, the audience level is All Users

View audience level

WMS libraries are able to view the audience level of a bibliographic record or local holdings record in multiple locations in WorldShare Record Manager when they have enabled the relevant settings in Record Manager user preferences.

Record type Location View audience levels
Bibliographic records Enhanced search results screen In the WorldCat Holdings column of a search result
Condensed search results screen In the Holding Audience Level column of a search result
MARC 21 editor In the MARC 21 header
Text View editor In the Text View header
Local holdings records LHR search results screen In the LHR Audience Level column of a result
MARC 21 editor In the MARC 21 header
Text View editor In the Text View header
LHR record work lists In the LHR Audience Level column of a work list item
Copies screen on a bibliographic record In the Holding Audience Level column of a copy