This database contains all electronic books available online that were cataloged by OCLC member libraries.
WorldCat covers all subjects found in online electronic books.
| 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. |
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.
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. |
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 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.
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 |
| 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. |
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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. |
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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 |
|
** 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". |
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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. |
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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). |
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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 0 500 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. |
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Search results in the WorldCat database can be sorted by Author (1003) and Title (4).
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 |
| 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:
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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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.