WorldCat Discovery release notes, March 2025

View parallel description in another language of cataloging with the MARC 788 field

The MARC 788 field will now be visible in WorldCat Discovery, allowing users to view parallel descriptions of bibliographic records in different languages. This enhancement improves the discoverability of bilingual and multilingual content, making it easier for users to navigate between descriptions in different cataloging languages.

When a record includes a parallel description, it will appear under the “Parallel Description” label. The following subfields will display in this order:
•    i: relationship information
•    t: title
•    b: edition
•    a: main entry heading
•    d: place, publisher, date of publication
•    x: ISSN
•    w: record control number
•    n: note

The ISSN ($x) will be hyperlinked to a search results page displaying associated records for that ISSN. The OCN ($w) will be hyperlinked if an OCN is present in the subfield, and this link will take users directly to the corresponding OCN record.

The Parallel Description field is demoted by default but can be reordered within Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Item Detail Settings > Reorder Data Fields.

View language note with the MARC 546 field

The MARC 546 field will now be visible in WorldCat Discovery, providing users with essential details about a resource’s language and script. This enhancement improves multilingual discovery by offering a more granular description of the language(s) used in an item or collection.

When present in a record, the MARC 546 field will display the following subfields:
•    $3 – Materials specified
•    $a – Language note
•    $b – Information on the alphabet, script, or notation system

The default display label is “Language Note” but libraries can configure "Language Notes" or “Language Details” to display based on their preference.

The Language Note field is demoted by default but can be reordered within Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Item Detail Settings > Reorder Data Fields.

View material-specific information with the MARC 340 subfield $3

The MARC 340 field, which provides physical description details about a resource, has been enhanced to include the $3 subfield when present in the record as the first position. This update improves clarity and specificity by allowing users to see which part of a resource the physical description applies to, making it particularly valuable for researchers and catalogers who rely on detailed physical descriptions to assess materials.

The MARC 340 field continues to be configurable within Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Item Detail Settings > Reorder Data Fields.

Search for works by or about a person using WorldCat Entity URIs

WorldCat Discovery now includes a Knowledge Card experience, making it easier to search for works by or about a person using URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) in MARC records. A WorldCat Entities uniform resource identifier (URI) is a unique, persistent identifier linked to WorldCat Entities data that represent a wide range of entity types (read more about Entity types). These URIs ensure accurate identification of entities and bibliographic records related to them, improving search precision by delivering more relevant search results while enabling new connections between data.

The knowledge card provides a quick, visual way to identify when a WorldCat Entities URI is available to help you find materials related to a person. When URIs are available in WorldCat MARC records, a hover-over card appears, offering two options:

• Works by author: Executes a URI author search (ua: URI) to retrieve materials created by the person. It searches for URIs present in the 100$1, 110$1, 700$1, 710$1
• Works about author: Executes a URI subject search (us: URI) to retrieve materials about the person. It searches for URIs present in the 600$1, 610$1

 Note: Not all authors are also cataloged as subjects. As a result, searching the us: URI index may not always return results. However, as WorldCat continues to grow and catalogers add more URIs to records, additional content about a person may become available in WorldCat.

Knowledge cards will appear in WorldCat Discovery when a bibliographic record includes a WorldCat Entities URI for a person in the MARC data. The knowledge card will be displayed on both the search results and item details pages. An icon will appear before the author’s name to indicate the feature’s availability. 

If a user clicks on an author's name, an author string search will function as it currently does—for example, the author’s name will remain a hotlink that performs a search for au="Austen, Jane" AND au="1775-1817”.

Note:

• This experience is not available for central index records.
• Not all entity types may be present in the MARC data.
• If a WorldCat Entities URI is not present in the MARC bibliographic record, the knowledge card cannot be displayed in WorldCat Discovery.
• If some records in a clustered (group) search results view in WorldCat Discovery contain a URI, but the representative record does not, the knowledge card will not appear on the representative record.

We recognize the importance of configuration and want to ensure we introduce it at the point of critical need. In this first iteration, the entity card is designed to pull URI data already available in the MARC record, helping users perform more precise searches. As we expand the functionality—such as embedding the knowledge card directly into search results or enhancing it with third-party data—configuration will be a key priority.

Find more information in the Linked data knowledge card FAQ.

Improve search precision with the Primary Title index, ensuring more accurate results for specific title searches 

Please note, this new index will be delivered through a phased implementation, and this release delivers Phase 1. Phases 2 or 3 may change as we get additional feedback from users on the use of the index in the coming weeks.

Phase 1: WorldCat database primary title searching

When searching the WorldCat database, you can now improve search precision with the Primary Title index, ensuring more accurate results for specific title searches. The new Primary Title (te:) index in WorldCat Discovery searches only the MARC 245 $a and $b subfields, providing more precise title matches for known-item searches. Unlike the Title (ti:) index, which searches multiple title-related fields, the te: index focuses solely on the main title. This improves accuracy and helps users quickly find the exact item they need.

This new index is labeled “Primary Title” in WorldCat Discovery and is available for selection on the advanced search page when searching the WorldCat database. The index code “te:” can also be used when constructing searches in the basic search box.

Phase 2 will add additional MARC 245 subfields $n number of part/section of a work and $p name of part/section from WorldCat database records that display in the search results title.

Phase 3 will expand this index to include titles from the Central index so that the index can be used with the WorldCat.org database as well as other central index databases.

Access more controlled subject vocabularies in Advanced Search, expanding search precision in the Worldcat database 

Indexes for specific subject headings are now available in Advanced Search, providing users with greater precision when searching the WorldCat database. These indexes allow users to limit searches to specific subject vocabularies, improving the discovery of relevant materials based on authoritative subject headings. 

The following subject heading indexes are now available in Advanced Search:
•    Canadian Subject (he:)
•    LC Children's Subject (hc:)
•    LCSH (hl:)
•    MeSH (hm:)
•    Other Subject (ho:)
•    RVM Subject (hr:)
•    Sears Subject (hs:)
•    NAL Subject (ha:)

Restrict access to your WorldCat Discovery instance

Institutions can now restrict access to their WorldCat Discovery site, ensuring that only authorized users can access the institution’s WorldCat Discovery interface. This feature is especially useful for corporate, government, and special libraries that require controlled access to their catalogs.

There are two options for restricting access:

For libraries using Hosted EZproxy: Access can be restricted using a combination of IP address access policies and the library’s Hosted EZproxy server, allowing authenticated off-campus/off-site users to connect via proxied access.

For libraries that do not use Hosted EZproxy: Access can be restricted through IP address access policies, permitting only specified static enterprise or campus IP ranges. Dynamic IP addresses are not supported.

Institutions interested in enabling this feature should contact OCLC Customer Support for assistance with configuration and implementation.

Proper handling of parentheses in faceted searches

WorldCat Discovery now correctly formats search queries when applying facets that include parentheses. 
Previously, selecting an author facet with parentheses, such as "Québec (province)," resulted in incorrect query syntax, causing searches to fail or return incomplete results. This issue has been resolved, ensuring that searches with parentheses and quotation marks execute correctly and return expected results.
 

ILL fulfillment button and availability now display correctly for Group Union Catalogs

The ILL fulfillment button and availability information now display correctly on the item details page for Group Union Catalog libraries, even when multiple databases are selected for searching.
Previously, searching across multiple databases caused the ILL button and availability details to be missing from the item details page. This issue has been resolved, ensuring that fulfillment options are always visible regardless of the number of databases selected.
 

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•    WorldCat Discovery Office Hours

Support website(s)

Support information for this product and related products can be found at:
•    WorldCat Discovery support resources  
•    WorldCat Discovery training
•    Release notes 
•    OCLC Customer Support
•    Browser compatibility chart 
 

Include Request ID with problem reports

When reporting an issue with WorldCat Discovery, it is extremely helpful to include the Request ID. The Request ID is found at the bottom of the screen on which the issue occurred. Including this information allows us to directly trace what happened on the request we are troubleshooting.