Online Catalog
Learn how to add information about your online catalog to your WorldCat registry institution information in OCLC Service Configuration.
Use the settings on this screen to list information about your Web-accessible catalog. When you are finished, click Save Changes or Reset to start over. To access this screen, sign in Service Configuration, open the WorldCat Registry left navigation and select Online Catalog.
Note: Find instructions on how to Configure links to your online catalog, including instructions for WorldCat Discovery libraries and for Dutch customers.
Online Catalog Availability
Use this section to select the availability option for your online catalog.
The options are:
- Available Online: Select this option if the institution has a catalog accessible by the general public on the Internet. Selecting this option allows the Online Catalog fields below to appear.
- Available on Intranet Only: Select this option if the institution has a catalog, but it is only accessible through an internal internet and is not available to the general public on the Internet.
- Not Available (default)
Online Catalog
It may take up to 24 hours for any changes to your institution's Online Catalog links to be reflected in other OCLC services. When you are finished, remember to Save Changes.
Online Catalog field definitions:
- Library System Used: Select your vendor from the drop-down list.
- Base URL: Main URL for your library’s catalog. Only one link can be used per profile.
- Online Catalog Direct to ISBN: URL for the screen that displays the results of an ISBN search of your catalog.
- Online Catalog Direct to ISSN: URL for the screen that displays the results of an ISSN search of your catalog.
- e-Serial ISSN Search: URL for the screen that displays the results of an ISSN search of your catalog for electronic serials.
- Online Catalog Direct to OCLC Number: URL for the screen that displays the results of an OCLC Number search of your catalog.
- Add Leading Zeroes to the OCLC search Term: Click the check box to add leading zeros to the search term if your library configures its catalog to retain the leading zeros on OCLC numbers.
- OCLC Number Prefix: Select which option you prefer for adding a prefix to the OCLC Number.
- Custom Prefix: Custom prefix to add to all OCLC Numbers.
- Online Catalog Direct to Multiple OCLC Numbers: The URL to conduct an OR search against the local catalog for multiple OCLC numbers which identify the same record. This will handle cases where many OCLC numbers have been reduced to a single OCLC number in the WorldCat database and the holdings in the local catalog may not match the holdings in WorldCat. Use {oclc} as a placeholder for where OCLC numbers can be inserted into the URL.
Tips on deep link construction
- Remember to save your changes. Deep links from your WorldCat Discovery interface to records in your OPAC will be functional after a short delay
- For WorldCat.org, if OCLC numbers are not consistently present in your local MARC records or are present but are not consistently indexed, we recommend leaving the Online Catalog Direct to OCLC Number field blank as we will not be able to search by ISSN/ISBN if the OCLC number search fails
- For WorldCat Discovery, links are searched in the following order:
- ISBN
- ISSN
- OCLC number ( Note: If you want to search by OCLC number, leave the ISBN and ISSN search strings blank)
- Deep links are typically constructed so that the ISSN, ISBN or OCLC number is at the end of the URL string
- Deep links cannot include semicolons (;) or carets (^) as they will cause links to break, even though they will seem to work correctly when tested
- Deep links cannot include a unique session identifier (session ID). A session ID is a device for tracking a specific user's visit to a Web site which expires after a pre-set time of inactivity; it often appears as a string of letters and/or numbers. Sirsi catalog links almost always have a session ID value, so be sure to remove it when constructing your syntax