Electronic Books (Ebooks)

OCLC catalog of online electronic books available through libraries worldwide

Why select this database?

This database contains all electronic books available online that were cataloged by OCLC member libraries.

Subjects included

WorldCat covers all subjects found in online electronic books.

Database details

Database name Electronic Books
Short database name EBKS
Available on FirstSearch, WorldCat Discovery, and WorldCat.org
Sources OCLC member libraries
Number of records 30,000,000+ books in the database
Coverage All cataloged ebooks to present
Update frequency Daily
Producer OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

Scan doesn't limit to Ebooks

The Electronic Books database does not always allow users to scan for search results in Ebooks correctly. Some index scans may provide correct information extremely slowly, and often with sparse information. Other index scans may respond quickly or slowly, but with information on record counts found within all of WorldCat instead of within the Ebooks database. Please do not use the scan option in Ebooks.

MARC Fields

The MARC records returned from this database will be the OCLC-MARC records as they were input into the system.

This database can have any valid MARC tag in it. Besides the valid MARC tags, the following FirstSearch Locally Defined fields also exist:

MARC Field FirstSearch Locally Defined fields
856 fields OCLC has added links to additional content such as cover art, table of contents, summaries and author notes.  These OCLC-created 856 fields include the following subfields:

856/u  URL to additional content

856/i  instructions in URL use

856/q  data type such as "ASCII," "GIF," etc.

856/x  "OCLC EC"

856/3  type of content such as "COVER ART," "TABLE OF CONTENTS," "MORE INFO," or "EXCERPTS"

  Evaluative content info in websites: OCLC created URLs contained in 856/u fields in full MARC syntax and under the label "Access:" in full SUTRS syntax will allow internet-based access to evaluative content (cover art, summaries, excerpts, author information, etc.) These URLs can be cut and pasted, or programmatically entered, into any browser supported by FirstSearch in order to gain access to the information. The URLs will time out after 7 days so if continued access is desired another search to receive and updated URL will need to be executed. The 856/i field is the indicator for information on the URL; because not all 856/u fields are additional evaluative content, the 856/i should be checked to be certain the 856/u link is truly a OCLC sourced link. The 856/i field contains instructions regarding the URL.
945/m Material type code media/technology access
945/n Material type text media/technology access
945/p Material type code content
945/q Material type text content
947/g Displayable form of the LC Control Number [010/a]
947/h Displayable form of the LC Control Number [010/z]
947/m Number of holding library symbols connected to item
947/n Date added to a database
947/p Date last updated in Cataloging subsystem of WorldCat
948
 

Library Holdings

Field 948/a gives the ISO country code information for each library holding the item. Additional detailed holdings information is available in FirstSearch Z39.50 Configuration Guide - Element Set Names.

Indexes

Index labels and search examples

  • You may type an index label with your search terms rather than a selection from the list of indexes to search on any search screen. The information you type overrides all default menu selections.
  • Use a colon after an index label (as in au:wang) when you are not certain of your search terms.
  • Use an equal sign after an index label (as in au=saint-arroman, august) for an exact match search.

The following may be sample rather than actual searches.

Search indexes Labels Examples
Keyword kw: coffee or tea and house+

[keyword searches publication date, ISBN, geographic codes, map data, and the Author, Title, Notes, Publisher, Publisher location, and Subject indexes]
Access Method am: www ebrary com (or) ebrary

[omit http://, and use spaces instead of periods or slashes]
Accession Number no: 318971415

[OCLC number]
Author au: saint-arroman

(use single quotes around 'le' and other words that are operators; operators supported in FirstSearch: Boolean search operators, parentheses, proximity operators, wildcards; operators included are le, ge, it, gt, n, near, w, with, and, or, not)
Author Phrase au= saint-arroman august

(use double quotes around exact phrases; omit single quote from 'le' operator when the double quote is used to search for an exact phrase)
Corporate and Conference Name cn: general motors
Corporate and Conference Name Phrase cn= general motors corporation
Descriptor de: voice disorders
Descriptor Phrase de= voice disorders in children
Genre/Form ge: solo piano
Genre/Form Phrase ge= fiction
Geographic Coverage gc: cape
Geographic Coverage Phrase gc= cape cod
ISBN nb: 3196311821 or 31-9631-182-1

9781421416052 or 978-1-421416-05-2

[search with or without hyphens]
ISSN sn: 0003-8520

[use hyphens]
Language Phrase ln= kw:education and ln=spanish

(browse the index for a complete list of languages)
LC Control Number nl: ne64-2560 or ne64002560 or ne642560 or

64-2560 or 64002560 or 642560

(prefixes can be immediately connected to the number or removed; hyphens can be included or removed; the number is searchable as it is stored, with the year and then six digits with leading zeros for unused digits, or as it is often displayed, without zeros)
Material Type mt: juvenile
Material Type Phrase mt= elementary and junior high school
Musical Composition mc: jazz
Musical Composition Phrase mc= folk music
Named Corporation and Conference nc: world conference on women
Named Corporation and Conference Phrase nc= intel corporation
Named Person na: mandela
Named Person Phrase na= mandela nelson

(last name first with first comma retained)
Notes/Comments nt: translation-adaptation
Personal Name pn: lemaire
Personal Name Phrase pn= lemaire gerard-georges
Publisher pb: media
Publisher Phrase pb= new star media
Publisher Location pl: china
Series Title se: emb report
Series Title Phrase se= emb evaluation report
Standard Number sn: 1550463160 or 155-0463-160

64002560

(for all searches, hyphens can be included in the search or removed; for the LCCN number, only the number used for storage, with the year and then six digits with leading zeros for unused digits, is indexed; many other standard numbers are included in this index)
Subject su: coffee and tea house+
Subject Phrase su= coffeehouses in art
Subject All sa= medical fees canada or medical fees--canada

(phrase search of complete subject heading with all parts, so "medical fees--canada" is searched as a single phrase)
 
Title ti: music w3 british w3 enlightenment
Title Phrase ti= music theory in the british isles during the enlightenment
Uniform title ut: bible
Uniform Title Phrase ut= selected poems 1930-1972
Update Date up: 20010101

Refine search results

Refine your results by adding these labels to your search terms:

Refine by Label Example
Library holdings ¹ li: li:ocl
Number of libraries ² cg: history and cg:31-
Year(s) of publication yr: yr:1996-1998

¹ For a list of library symbols, visit the Directory of OCLC members.

² For a list of library codes for the Number of Libraries index, see Number of library holdings.

Index use and structure

FirstSearch indexes and USE and STRUCTURE attributes used to access them:

Index Description Use Attribute Structure Attribute Indexed Fields and Subfields
Keyword (kw)* Any 1016 2 Fields found in the following indexes:

Author keyword

Title keyword

Notes

Subject

Publisher

Place of publication

and

008 Date 1

008 Date 2

020/a,z

034/b,c,d,e,f,g,z,3

052/a & ab combined

255/a,b,c,d,e

Access Method (am)* OCLC Defined 1209 2 856/u
Access Restrictions OCLC Defined 5068 1,2 506/a,f
Accession Number (no) Control number-local 12

1211
1,2 001

019/a
Language   (ln=)** Code-language 54 1, 2 008 <lang>

041/b,d,e,f,g,j

041/a if first indicator is zero
Notes/Comments (nt) Note 63 2 500/a

501/a

502/a-d,g,o

504/a

505/a,r,t

506/a,f

508/a

511/a

518/a,d,o,p

520/a,b

521/a

530/b,c,d,3

533/a,b,c,d,e,f,n

534/a,t

536/a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h

538/a

545/a

550/a

586/a

753/a,b,c
Material Type (mt) material-type 1031 1,2 945/m,n,p,q
Place of Publication (pl) Name-geographic-place-publication 59 2 257/a

260/a,e

261/f

262/a

533/b

752/a,b,c,d
Publisher (pb) Name-publisher 1018 1,2 260/b,f

261/a,b,c

262/b

533/c
Update Date (up)* Update date 1012 2 005/00-07 "replaced"
Year of Publication

(yr)
Date-publication 31 4,5 008 <date1>

046/c


* Additional information on these indexes is given in the Searching tips below.

** Language is searchable by language code or the English translation of the code.

Author Searches

Index Description Use Attribute Structure Attribute Indexed Fields and Subfields
Author keyword (au) Author-name 1003 2 100/a,b,c,d,j,q,u

110/a,b,c,d,e,n,u

111/a,c,d,e,n,q,u

245/c

505/r

508/a

511/a

550/a

700/a,b,c,d,j,q,u

710/a,b,c,d,e,n

711/a,c,d,e,n,q

720/a

770/a

773/a

780/a

785/a

787/a

800/a,b,c,d,q,u

810/a,b,c,d,e,n

811/a,c,d,e,n,q
Author Phrase (au=) Author-name 1003 1 100/a,b,c,d,j,q

110/a,b,c,d,n

111/a,c,d,e,n,q

700/a,b,c,d,j,q

710/a,b,c,d,n

711/a,c,d,e,n,q

720/a
Corporate and Conference Name (cn, cn=) Author-name-conference 1005

1006
1, 2 110/a,b,c,d,e,n,u*

111/a,c,d,e,n,q,u

710/a,b,c,d,e,n*

711/a,c,d,e,n,q
Personal Name (pn, pn=) Author-name-personal 1004 1, 2 100/a,b,c,d,j,q,u

700/a,b,c,d,j,q,u

* The 100/u, 110/e,u, 700/u and 710/e are only available in the keyword forms of their respective indexes.

Subject Heading Searches

Index Description Use Attribute Structure Attribute Indexed Fields and Subfields
Subject (su, su=) Subject 21 1, 2 600/a,b,c,d,e,g,j,k,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,v,x,y,z

610/a,b,c,d,e,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t,v,x,y,z

611/a,c,d,e,g,k,n,p,q,t,v,x,y,z

630/a,d,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t,v,x,y,z

648/a,v,x,y,z

650/a,b,v,x,y,z

651/a,v,x,y,z

653/a

654/a,b,v,x,y,z

655/a,b,v,x,y,z
Descriptor (de, de=) OCLC Defined 5650 1, 2 600/x

610/x

611/x

630/x

648/x

650/a,b,x

651/x

653/a if 2nd indicator is 0

654/x

655/x
Geographic Coverage (gc, gc=) Name-geographic 58 1,2 042/a**

651/a,z

600/z

610/z

611/z

630/z

648/z

650/z

653/a if 2nd indicator is 5

654/z

655/z
Genre/Form (ge, ge=) OCLC Defined 5655 1,2 655/a,b,v

600/v

610/v

611/v

630/v

648/v

650/v

651/v

653/a if 2nd indicator is 6

654/v
Named Person (na, na=)*** Subject-name-personal 1009 1,2 600/a,b,c,d,j,q

653/a if 2nd indicator is 1
Named Conference and Corporation (nc, nc=) OCLC Defined 5610 1,2 610/a,b,c,d,n,p

611/a,c,d,e,n,p,q

653/a if 2nd indicator is 2 or 3
Subject All (sa=)
 
OCLC Defined 5090 1 600/a,b,c,d,e,g,j,k,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,v,x,y,z

610/a,b,c,d,e,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t,v,x,y,z

611/a,c,d,e,g,k,n,p,q,t,v,x,y,z

630/a,d,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t,v,x,y,z

648/a,v,x,y,z

650/a,b,v,x,y,z

651/a,v,x,y,z

653/a

654/a,b,v,x,y,z

655/a,b,v,x,y,z



* Additional information on these indexes is given in the Searching tips below.

** 042/a is indexed as the English terms represented by the codes.

*** The first comma is retained as part of the search for this index only.

Notes for all the subject phrase indexes

Each portion of the subject heading (e.g., subheading in 650/a,x,y,z) will be handled as a distinct phrase search. The suggested strategy in searching for records that contain those subheadings is to and those terms together.

Example:  650 #a Nuclear Power Plants #x Safety Measures is searched by entering:

nuclear power plants and safety measures.

The one exception to this is the Subject All index (use attribute 5090) For that index the above term would be searched as "nuclear power plants safety measures".

Title Searches

Index Description Use Attribute Structure Attribute Indexed Fields and Subfields
Title keyword (ti) Title 4

1002
2 031/d

100/t

110/t

111/t

130/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

210/a

214/a

222/a,b

240/a,d,f,g,k,m,no,p,r,s

242/a,b,n,p

243/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s

245/a,b,f,g,k,n,p

246/a,b,n,p

247/a,b,n,p

440/a,n,p

490/a

505/t

700/g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

710/d,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

711/g,k,n,p,s,t

730/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

740/a,n,p

770/a,s,t

773/p,s,t

780/s,t

785/s,t

787/s,t

800/g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

810/d,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

811/g,k,n,p,s,t

830/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t,v
Title (ti=) Title 4

1002
1 130/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

222/a,b

240/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s

245/a,b,f,g,k,n,p*

246/a,b,n,p

505/t

730/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

740/a,n,p
Series (se, se=) Title-series 5 1, 2 440/a,n,p,v,x

490/a,v,x

533/f

534/f

760/a,s,t,x,y

762/a,s,t,x,y

800/a,b,c,d,e,g,k,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,v

810/a,b,c,d,e,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t,v

811/a,c,d,e,g,k,n,p,s,t,v

830/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t,v
Uniform Title (ut, ut=) Title-uniform 6 1, 2 130/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t

240/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s

243/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s

700/g,k,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t

710/d,g,k,m,n,p,o,r,s,t

711/d,g,k,n,p,s,t

730/a,d,f,g,k,m,n,o,p,r,s,t


* The Title phrase search has the 245/a and 245/b subfields combined into a single phrase search with structure attribute 1.  These subfields (245/a, 245/b) can be searched as separate subfields also.

Classification Numbers and Specific Searches*

Index Description Use Attribute Structure Attribute Indexed Fields and Subfields
Standard Number (sn) Identifier-standard 1007 1,2 010/a,b,z

015/a,z

016/a,z

020/a,z

022/a,l,m,y,z

024/a,z

027/a,z

028/a

030/a,z

037/a

088/a

262/c

440/x

490/x

534/o,x,z

700/x

710/x

711/x

730/x

760/x,y,z

762/x,y,z

770/r,u,x,y,z

773/u,x,y,z

776/x,y,z

780/x,y,z

785/x,y,z

800/x

810/x

811/x

830/x
ISBN (nb) Identifier-ISBN 7 1,2 020/a,z
LCCN (nl) Control number-LC 9 1 010/a,z


* All searches in the above table (Classification Numbers and Specific Searches) are explained further in the Searching Tips, in the Call Number Indexes and Known Item Searches sub-sections (see below).

Record display information

 

Restrictors

The following restrictors* should be combined with search strings in WorldCat (using the Boolean operators AND or NOT) in cases where the search results would otherwise be too large and unmanageable.

Restrictor Type Input Use Attribute Structure Attribute MARC Tag
Year (yr) All years

Single year

Range of years
--

1999, or 2000

-1899

1955-1967

1998-
31 5 008 <date1>

046/c
Library group (cg) Number of
libraries with
holdings

2500 or more

2000 - 2499

1500 - 1999

1000 - 1499

900 - 999

800 - 899

700 - 799

600 - 699

500 - 599

400 - 499

300 - 399

200 - 299

150 - 199

100 - 149

75 - 99

50 - 74

25 - 49

10 - 24

5 - 9

2 - 4

1

0



Predefined ranges

500 or more

100 or more

50 or more

10 or more

5 or more




31

30

29

28

27

26

25

24

23

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10





09

08

07

06

05
5848 2 947/m
Library Holdings (li) all

Library Symbol
--

xxx (OCLC symbol for the library)**
56

1044
2 948/h

* All restrictors are discussed in the searching tips.

** To find the OCLC symbol for an institution, please see the online version of Directory of OCLC members.

Sorting

Search results in the WorldCat database can be sorted by Author (1003) and Title (4).

General punctuation rules

Omit accent marks and diacritics such as ¨ (umlaut) and ¸ (cedilla). Special characters should be replaced by a Romanized form of the character, such as u for hooked u and ss for ß (eszett).

Punctuation Rule Punctuation Rule
" (quote mark) Convert to a blank @ (commercial at) Convert to a blank
' (apostrophe) Indexed both as:

— delete and collapse

— convert to a blank
? (question mark) Convert to a blank
. (period) Convert to a blank, except when the first period in a class number search. / (slash) Convert to a blank except in Dewey call number search where it is deleted and collapsed.
, (comma) Convert to a blank - (hyphen) Convert to a blank
; (semicolon) Convert to a blank & (ampersand) Retain and index
: (colon) Convert to a blank \ (backslash) Convert to a blank
() (parentheses) Delete and collapse © (copyright sign) Delete and collapse
<> (less/greater than signs) Convert to a blank ° (degree sign) Delete and collapse
{} (curly brackets) Convert to a blank € (Euro) Convert to a blank
[] (square brackets) Delete and collapse, retaining the data within except for [sic] and [i.e. any data following] Flat (musical) Convert to a blank
= (equal sign) Convert to a blank ¡ (inverted exclamation point) Convert to a blank
! (exclamation point) Convert to a blank ¿ (inverted question mark) Convert to a blank
# (number sign) Delete and collapse Phonograph copyright Delete and collapse
$ (dollar sign) Convert to a blank # (sharp — musical) Convert to a blank
% (percent sign) Convert to a blank Space Convert multiple spaces to a single space
* (asterisk) Convert to a blank ± (plus/minus sign) Convert to a blank
+ (plus sign) Convert to a blank _ (underscore) Convert to a blank

Stopwords

a an and are as at be but by for from
had have he her his in is it not of on
or that the this to was which with you    

Phrase indexes have no stopwords.

Some indexes will have exceptions to the list of stopwords. These differences are:

  1. Author, Corporate and Conference Name, and Personal Names have no stopwords.
  2. Place of Publication, Subjects, Geographic Coverage will not have the following stopwords: an, as, at, be, by, if, in, is, it, on, or, so, to.
  3. Access Method has the stopwords above as well as http and https as stopwords.
     

Searching tips

Keyword search

The Keyword index for WorldCat uses attribute number 1016. The Keyword search finds information in the author, title, subject, notes, ISBN, year, year 2 and a few fields specific to the keyword search (034/a,b,d,e,f,g, 052/a,b, 255/a,b,c,d,e).

The Year and Year2 data is indexed exactly as those indexes index the 008 data (see below). The ISBN is indexed as the data is indexed, without hyphens. However, any keyword search term that meets the characteristics of an ISBN and is entered with hyphens will be automatically concatenated by the search processor.

A geographic field found only in the keyword indexes is 052/a,b. This is a field useful to map catalogers. The 052/a field is indexed alone. Any records containing 052/b also indexes as 052/a concatenated together with 052/b without spaces, as a single word. So, a record with 052 #a 1234 #b P4 #b C2 is searchable as 1234, 1234p4, and 1234c2.

Subject Indexes

The Subject searches have many options. The types of data have been broken down to allow specific searches, such as Geographic Coverage (58) and Genre/form (5655), Named Person (1009), Named Corporation (5610) and Named Conference (5611). The Descriptor search (5650) includes only topical information.

Library Holdings Group

The library holdings group (use attribute 5848) limits a search by the most widely held items. Try using a rangeable search, such as 08, which would include all items held by 100 libraries or more. Different types of material will have different high-end levels for searching. If you searching for highly technical material, 50 libraries holding the item would be a large number. However, serial records and very popular works can be found in the rare "most held" group31.
 

Access Method/Internet Resources

The most direct search of internet resources is the Access Method search (use 5856) which searches the URLs in some WorldCat records. The characters between the punctuation in the URL are the "words" that are searched for. For example, https://www.oclc.org is searched by the "words" www, OCLC, and org. The most distinct term in the string is the most useful on which to search. All the stopwords apply to this index, plus two additional stopwords, "http" and "https".
 

Known number indexes

ISBNs (use 7) remove and concatenate all punctuation including hyphens. However, a search can be entered with hyphens and get the appropriate ISBN records. Consider searching the ISBN using the Standard Number index (use 1007) instead of the ISBN only (use 7) index. The index with use 7 includes only data found in the 022 field, while the ISBNs for the electronic item are sometimes included in the 776/z field which is indexed with Standard Number (use 1007). To have all ISBNs included in the index use the Standard Number index. For both of these indexes, ISBNs can be successfully searched with or without hyphens.

LCCN or Library of Congress Control Numbers (use 9) have the numbers indexed without the hyphen. A user can search with the hyphen added or with the zero fill characters that is also used to store the number. So for example, sn92-1234 is indexed as sn921234 and 921234 and can be searched as 92-1234 or 92001234 or sn92-1234 or sn92001234.

The standard number index (use 1007) has ISBNs, LCCNs, and many other standard numbers. For all of these, all punctuation is removed and concatenated. For the LCCNs, only the stored number with the zeros is retained. Further, if there is an alphabetic prefix with three letters it is attached to the number. If there is an alphabetic prefix of one or two letters, it is not attached.
 

Update Index

The update index (1012) gives the date on the MARC record as the date last updated in the OCLC WorldCat Cataloging System in the format YYYYMMDD. Since, FirstSearch is a day or two behind the cataloging system, please take that into account. So, if a user searched on August 31, 2000 and wanted to retrieve only new or changed records a month later (October 1, 2000) the user would AND the previous search with the update index using "200009*". However, while this would retrieve all of September, to be complete the search "2000083*" would also need to be included.
 

Copyright information

Copyright © 1978-2018 OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.

OCLC staff occasionally hears from librarians who want to use Z39.50 access to the WorldCat database on the OCLC FirstSearch service for cataloging purposes. While use of Z39.50 for cataloging is available, only a cataloging authorization number can be used to catalog with Z39.50 access within the services agreements. OCLC does provide an extensive range of cataloging and metadata services for libraries, including Web and Z39.50 interfaces for cataloging.