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 WorldCat User Guide

Contents

• Intro to WorldCat
• Basic Search
• Advanced Search
• A Few Cool features
• Send-Off

Intro To WorldCat

In its own words, WorldCat is

"the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.

" It boasts over 1.2 billions items, in multiple formats and languages.

Users can search the collections of participating WorldCat libraries to look for both physical and digital materials. While WorldCat does not guarantee that the user will be able to access these materials, the user can at least search for which institutions currently hold those materials. Links to Amazon.com and the OCLC store are also provided, making access to the desired item(s) as efficient as possible.

WorldCat is actually comprised a few services. The original one requires membership to the

Online Computer Library Center

(OCLC), its mother organization. This is what you might access at your local library. What we will focus on here is

WorldCat.org which is freely and publicly available on the Web. The following two sections will walk you through basic and advanced searches on WorldCat.org.

Basic Search

1. Locate the WorldCat search box on the homepage located at http://www.worldcat.org.

You can choose to register or sign in using the box to the right of the blue search box, but that is not necessary to do a basic (or advanced) search.

2. Click on the tabs above the white box to search Everything, Books, DVDs, CDs, or Articles.  Then type your query in the white box and click on the button to the right.

3. A list of results will appear.  You can choose to refine your results by clicking on the links in the Refine Your Search box (highlighted in blue) or skip between the pages of results (highlighted in green). 

4. A list of libraries that have the item in their collection will then appear.  Their distance is calculated from the town that you specify (outlined in green).  You can choose to further Narrow Your Results by Format (outlined in blue) or choose to send the item’s information elsewhere (outlined in orange).

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Advanced Search

1. Click on the Advanced Search link on the homepage located at http://www.worldcat.org.

2. In the Advanced Search box (pictured below) enter in as much information about the item you are looking for as you can.  Currently, WorldCat does not allow the use of Boolean operators (AND,OR,NOT).  Remember to click on any drop down boxes to see additional options.  Then click the search button.

 

3.  Please follow the directions under “Basic Search” from the 3rd step for what to do with the results.

A Few Cool Features

WorldCat has a lot of cool features. Here are a few. You can:

• make lists (see example, below)
• build a Bibliography
• get a search plug-in for your FaceBook page
• get a FireFox add-on
• add reviews to items (like Amazon.com)
• easily find "similar items"
• many more (you can discover them yourself!)

Example:

How to

Create Lists

on Worldcat 

1.        

From the homepage, click on

Create lists

2.      

(a) Choose a List Name, (b) Decide whether you want to be private or public, (c) then click ‘Create New List’.

3.        

Begin to add desired content to your list.

Hit Search button.

4.      

Be sure to click on settings:

In order to add a brief description to your list or to change privacy settings.

5.        

In the search results screen, select the item(s) you want to add.

Carefully select which list you want to put the item in and hit SAVE.

6.        

Explore your sharing, exporting, & customization options.

 

 

 

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Send-Off

We hope this has gotten you off to a good start. There is a lot to explore in WorldCat. Have fun and feel free to ask the 22-24 Team if you need help. Visit our wiki at http://worldcat.pbwiki.com