Search Settings

Search Defaults

Customize the search defaults for WorldCat Discovery.

Display indication of search relevance on results and item details

When this setting is toggled to display, search relevance indicators highlight matching search terms in the result entries and on the item details screen. If you add an index label to your search terms, the relevant subject entries will also display in the result set. See Search result record display for more information.

Allow French boolean operators in WorldCat Discovery

It is possible to allow Discovery users to search using boolean operators in French. To allow French boolean operators in WorldCat Discover searches, use the toggle switch to Allow French boolean operators in WorldCat Discovery.

The following French boolean operators can be used:

ET = AND
OU = OR
SAUF = NOT

Note: These operators must be entered in all uppercase letters to be considered boolean operators.

Default Grouping

Determine how search results are grouped by default. The user will be able to change these settings after the initial display of the search results. Define the default grouping for search results when results are set to display from your library or libraries worldwide with the following settings:

Select default grouping for search results scoped to your library
Select default grouping for search results scoped to libraries worldwide

Options include:

Option	Definition
Show all	Show all records for the search. Note: Presenting an ungrouped list to patrons may present more options than desired. OCLC research and testing suggest that hiding duplicates or grouping editions and formats add efficiency to searching for most users.
Hide duplicates	Groups variant records. Variant records are records for the same edition but in a different language of cataloging or a duplicate record that has not yet been merged.
Group editions and formats	Group related editions in search results. If enabled, records in search results are grouped by work and displayed via a representative record in the search results. Edition grouping brings records together that have the same: WorkID (title, author, format) Language of publication Sub-format (if applicable) Year of publication Publisher (first entry) Note: When Group editions and formats is enabled, WorldCat Discovery measures the popularity of a work using the total number of worldwide library holdings for all editions and formats of the work, not just the individual representative record for a group of editions. This boosts the relevance score of popular works when users rank their search results using the Best Match, Library, or Recency algorithms. Other editions and formats may be viewed through Worldwide Editions and Formats and in the item detail under Explore Editions & Formats.

Option

Definition

Show all

Show all records for the search.

Note: Presenting an ungrouped list to patrons may present more options than desired. OCLC research and testing suggest that hiding duplicates or grouping editions and formats add efficiency to searching for most users.

Hide duplicates

Groups variant records. Variant records are records for the same edition but in a different language of cataloging or a duplicate record that has not yet been merged.

Group editions and formats

Group related editions in search results. If enabled, records in search results are grouped by work and displayed via a representative record in the search results.

Edition grouping brings records together that have the same:

WorkID (title, author, format)
Language of publication
Sub-format (if applicable)
Year of publication
Publisher (first entry)

Note: When Group editions and formats is enabled, WorldCat Discovery measures the popularity of a work using the total number of worldwide library holdings for all editions and formats of the work, not just the individual representative record for a group of editions. This boosts the relevance score of popular works when users rank their search results using the Best Match, Library, or Recency algorithms.

Other editions and formats may be viewed through Worldwide Editions and Formats and in the item detail under Explore Editions & Formats.

See Filter and refine search results for more information.

Define the default display of item availability for grouped records

Define the default display of item availability for grouped records. To enable availability from the edition group, select one of the options below:

Options include:

Display availability from the edition group: Availability information will display for each record in the edition cluster on the representative record.
Display availability from the OCLC number only: Availability information will be displayed for the OCLC number of the representative record.

See Representative record and availability display on grouped search results for more information.

Edition grouping brings records together that have the same:

WorkID (title, author, format)
Language of publication
Sub-format (if applicable)
Year of publication
Publisher (first entry)

Default Sort

You may define how search results are sorted by default when initially displayed. A user may change this setting to view other sort options, but every time a search result is initially displayed, the default sort setting will always be selected. Choose your default sort level from the list.

Note: The WorldCat Local default sort is no longer supported by WorldCat Discovery.

Sort option	Behavior
Best Match	Blends Title, Author, Date and Worldwide Holdings with an emphasis placed on Title.
Recency	Blends Date, Title, Author and Worldwide Holdings with an emphasis placed on Date.
Author (A to Z)	Sorts by special characters or numbers in the first name, then A to Z by last name.
Date (Newest)	Sorts chronologically by publication date with newest items listed first.
Date (Oldest)	Sorts chronologically by publication date with oldest items listed first.
Library	Considers individual holdings first, then blends Title, Author, Date and Worldwide Holdings.
Most Widely Held	Presents an "unclustered" view of search results with an emphasis on Worldwide Holdings in a blend of Date, Title, and Author. Use this sort option to view best results for interlibrary loan requests.
Title	Sorts by special characters, then alphabetically by Title. Only the article "the" is ignored.

Search Expansion Settings

Enable expanded search queries using related terms.

Related terms

Allow searching across authority files to find relevant search terms, even when using related, variant, or deprecated search terms.

Enable the Expand user's queries using authority data i.e. related terms setting to show the Expand search with related terms option in the WorldCat Discovery interface.
Enable Expand query using authority data by default to turn this feature on automatically in the WorldCat Discovery interface.
Select Authority files:
- AAT Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- LCGenre Library of Congress Genres
- LCNAF Library of Congress Name Authority File
- LCSH Library of Congress Subject Headings
- MeSH Medical Subject Headings
- RVM Répertoire de vedettes-matière
  - RVM uses controlled terms from the French languages
- RVMGF Répertoire de vedettes-matière Genre Form
  - RVMGF uses controlled terms from the French languages

See Expand search with related terms for more information.

Local Search Expansion

After you have configured local subject replacements, you can implement locally preferred search expansions. Refer to Local search expansion for more information.

Enable the Expand users' queries using locally defined search expansion setting.
After creating a spreadsheet to define local search expansion using a universal template provided by WorldCat Discovery, save the file as a tab-separated values file (.tsv).
Select the Browse or Replace button to find and select your tab-separated values file for upload.
Determine whether to configure a custom sensitivity message to display to library users by default when the search is run.
- Subject headings that have been expanded with local search expansions will not present a warning message before the search is run, as the expansion should re-map the local expansion to the controlled heading. When the mapped subject heading chosen for a local search expansion is considered Exclusive, it will not display to the user by default. Instead, a sensitivity message is displayed.
- Subject headings that have not been expanded with local subjects will continue to use the existing warning message before the search is run.

Note: Once uploaded, the Local Search Expansion file cannot be downloaded from the OCLC Service Configuration. Retain a local copy for future use.

Translated Terms

Determine whether to expand search queries using translated terms. Additional terms appear if the search term matches on the 7xx field for parallel terms.

Note: This feature is intended to support English/French bilingualism for libraries that have government requirements to do so. OCLC does not currently have plans to expand this to other libraries.

Select Allow users to translate their query into a different, single language to surface this option in the WorldCat Discovery interface.
Enable Expand query to translated terms by default to turn this feature on automatically in the WorldCat Discovery interface.
Select the sources for translation:
- AAT Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Canadiana Name Authorities
- Canadiana Subject Headings
- LCDGT Library of Congress Demographic Group Terms
- LCGenre Library of Congress Genres
- LCMPT Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus
- LCNAF Library of Congress Name Authority File
- LCSH Library of Congress Subject Headings
- MeSH Medical Subject Headings
- RVM Répertoire de vedettes-matière
- RVMGD Répertoire de vedettes-matière des groupes démographiques
- RVMGF Répertoire de vedettes-matière Genre Form
- RVMMEM Répertoire de vedettes-matière des moyens d'exécution en musique
Select the default translation language. Options include:
- English to French
- French to English

News Articles

OCLC is inviting libraries who wish to activate search expansion for news articles in their WorldCat Discovery instance to participate in an early adopter period starting 12 September 2024. We will activate this feature for any remaining WorldCat Discovery libraries on 16 December 2024.

When this feature is activated, News articles are excluded from searches by default.

To adopt this feature early, request activation via the Community Center WorldCat Discovery Early Adopters area.

Configure the display of the News Articles toggle to allow library users to expand their search by including or excluding news articles.

Configure your search box(es) to include or exclude news articles from searches. Searchers entered in the search box will exclude news articles by default. Refer to Search Box Generator, Create Search Tabs for more information.

When this feature is activated for your institution, the following settings will result in the below experience.

Early adopter status	Setting within OCLC Service Configuration	Search results	Expand This Search With: News Articles toggle display
Inactive	News article services are disabled for display.	News articles are included in all search results.	Not displayed
Active	Allow users to control whether news articles appear in search results = OFF.	News articles are excluded by default.	Not displayed
Active	Allow users to control whether news articles appear in search results = ON.	News articles are excluded by default when the search is entered from: Basic Search page Advanced Search page Search box tab without News Articles expansion configured	Toggle is defaulted to OFF. Users may toggle News Articles to ON.
Active	Allow users to control whether news articles appear in search results = ON.	News articles are Included when search is entered from: Search box tab with News Articles expansion configured.	Toggle is defaulted to ON. Users may toggle News Articles to OFF.

Note: Most news content in the WorldCat Discovery central index is found in individual news databases from content partners such as Gale and ProQuest that require a subscription to enable for searching rather than in OCLC databases such as WorldCat.org. The impact of the news articles expansion toggle will therefore be more apparent on searches that include these subscription news databases.

Search Filters Settings

The Search filter settings section is used to select which filters appear in your search results and how the selected filters appear. Each available filter can be configured to display in a specific way. Use the options in the columns to determine how each filter appears.

Notes:

Search Filters Settings are available to WMS institutions, WorldCat Discovery premium institutions, and group catalogs. For more information, please contact sales@oclc.org.
Filters will display only when the selected database(s) have metadata available to support them, not all databases support all filters.

Column

Description

Order

Use the up and down arrow buttons to arrange the display order of the filters.

Filter Type

The following filters can be configured:
Library
Format
Content (Includes options such as Full Text, Peer Reviewed, and Open Access)
Year
Author
Topic (Includes subjects such as Engineering & Technology)
Database
Language
Audience

Hide or Show

Toggle the button to show or hide the filter in search results.

Expand or Collapse

Toggle the button to expand or collapse the content of each filter by default.

Display Label

Select a Display Label from the drop-down list.

Display label selections

Filter Type	Display Label selections
Grouping	Search Results Display
Expansion	Expand this Search With
Library	At My Library Held By Held By Library Held by My Library Library Library Location My Campus My Institution's Library My Library Owned By Library Search in These Libraries Where
Format	Filter by Format Format Item Format Looking for a Material Format Material Type Resource Format Resource Type Source Type Type of Resource
Content	Category Content Content Type Limit To Show Only
Year	Creation Date Date Publication Date Publication Year Year Year of Publication Years
Author	Author Author/Creator Creator Person
Thema	Academic Discipline Areas Conspectus Filter by Subject Subject Subject Area Subject Headings Subject Terms Thema Within Subject
Database	Collection Collection Source Database Databases Record Source Resource Results Source Search In Source Source Collection Source Database Source Type
Language	Dialect Filter by Language Language Language/Dialect
Audience Note: The Audience filter will display only when Worldcat.org or WorldCat is selected as the only database in a search.	Audience Reading Level

Click Save to save changes.

Search Results Settings

Promote a single location

Note: This functionality is for WorldCat Discovery only.

Determine whether to promote a single location or display an availability summary on search results, Local Editions and Formats, Shelf Browse, and on the Access Options panel.

This setting will be enabled by default.

When the setting is enabled, the interface displays the first available item.
When this setting is disabled, users will always see the availability summary when items exist at more than one location held by their local institution.
- If there is only one location present for the record, the interface will display that location’s first available item rather than a summary in order to show the item is only available at that single location.

Display Editions & Formats links on search results

Note: This functionality is for WorldCat Discovery only.

Determine whether or not to allow the Worldwide Editions and Formats link to appear on search results in WorldCat Discovery.

Example

Clicking on the Worldwide Editions and Formats link from the search results will open the Explore Editions and Formats section of the item record. For information on filtering Editions and Formats, please see Selected Filters.

Display alternate formats on search results

Note: This setting is no longer functional in the OCLC Service Configuration.

This functionality is for WorldCat Discovery only.

To help users access all locally held formats from a default edition, libraries can configure other locally-held formats to display on search results. When viewing search results, WorldCat Discovery displays one link for each unique format locally held by your institution.

For more information, see Display locally held formats on search results.

Define the default availability display for Discovery

Caution: For Discovery Premium Institutions, non- WMS institutions only.

If your library subscribes to WorldCat Discovery Premium (not WMS), choose to turn off the display of item availability information from your OPAC in search results if this does not meet your needs. Instead, you may activate links from WorldCat Discovery to your OPAC interface via deep links, where users can view item location and availability information.

Choose to:

Display availability details
Display local OPAC deep link
- Refer to Configure links to your online catalog for more information.

Alternative Subject Headings

Upload the local re-mapping spreadsheet (.tsv) to surface alternate subject headings in lieu of any previous, sensitive subject headings in your library's WorldCat Discovery interface. Refer to EDI, Local subject re-mapping for more information.

To upload the spreadsheet:

After creating a spreadsheet to define local re-mapping for subject headings using a universal template provided by WorldCat Discovery, save the file as a tab-separated values file (.tsv).
Toggle on the Display alternative subject headings in search results and item details setting.
Select the Browse button to find and select your tab-separated values file for upload.
Determine whether to configure a custom message for the library users. Users will see this language if they click on a subject that has been re-mapped, warning them that the original, sensitive subject will be displayed when the search is run.

Note: Once uploaded, the Local subject re-mapping file cannot be downloaded from the OCLC Service Configuration. Retain a local copy for future use.