WorldCat

Subjects included

• articles, chapters, papers
• books
• computer programs
• films and slides
• journals and magazines
• manuscripts
• maps
• musical scores
• newspapers
• sound records
• videotapes
• websites and internet resources

Database details

Index labels and search examples

Use a colon after an index label (for example, au:) when you are not certain of your search terms. Use an equal sign after an index label (au=) for an exact match search. You can search with an index label from any search screen. The information you type overrides any default menu selections. The following examples show sample rather than actual searches. For more information on indexes, see Searching WorldCat Indexes.

Index use and structure

FirstSearch Indexes and USE and STRUCTURE attributes used to access them. For more information on indexes, see Searching WorldCat Indexes.

Author Searches

For more information on indexes, see Searching WorldCat Indexes.

Subject Heading Searches

For more information on indexes, see Searching WorldCat Indexes.

Title Searches

For more information on indexes, see Searching WorldCat Indexes.

Classification Numbers and Specific Searches

For more information on indexes, see Searching WorldCat Indexes.

Local holdings within WorldCat

For more information on indexes, see Searching WorldCat Indexes.

Language index

The Language index uses the three-letter codes for languages found in the OCLC MARC Code Lists (ISBN 1-55653-169-9). The language index also can be searched using the two-character ISO codes for languages. The English translations of these codes are also searchable. Note that the only precise search term is the three-letter code. All other terms may group language codes together. For example, English as a word search brings together Modern English, Old English, and Creole or Pidgin English.

Some example of codes and their English language translations are given below. All languages in the WorldCat database are searchable. Scan the index to see all the available searches.

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:

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.

Year Indexes

There are three different year indexes in WorldCat. The first, the Year of Publication index (31), is the first year given in the USMARC Formats 008 date fields and is the publication date. If a year in this index is cataloged with unknown characters, such as 199u, the "u" is replaced by zero's. 199u changes to 1990. Years that are shorter than four digits have leading zeros added. To search year 999, enter 0999.

The second index, the Year 2 of Publication index (5031), is the second date field in the 008. The year 2 index contains the ending year of a series, the original year of a reprinted work, and other specific year information. It is unlikely that users other than information professionals will be interested in using the second year index. Digits that were cataloged in this index as unknown are converted to nine. However, if all four digits are unknown, then it is converted to all zeros. Years that are shorter than four digits have the leading zeros added. Note that the minimum value on the Year of Publication indexes for unbounded ranges is 1000.

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.

Additionally, there are indexes that search only the subject headings of a specific classification. The classifications are:

• Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) (use 27)
• Library of Congress Subject Headings for Children which conforms to Annotated Card Subject Headings (1008)
• Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) which conforms to the National Library of Medicine authority file (25)
• National Agricultural Library (NAL) subject authority file (1088)
• Canadian Subject Headings and the Library and Archives Canada authority file (5300)
• Répertoire de vedettes-matière and the Library and Archives Canada authority file in French (28)
• Other subject headings (6136)

The Other subject headings index, includes all the subject headings indexed with the subfield 2 used to indicate what subject heading type was used. To limit to one of these subject headings, AND any of these searches with the keyword search of the term indexed in the subfield 2. So for example, 650 $aEglise $xHistoire $yCa 30-600 (Eglise primitive). $2ram can be searched by searching any of these subject terms or phrases like "eglise" and "histoire" - to limit to this subject heading group, include a word search of the desired type MARC code, such as "ram", with the above example.

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" group—31.
 

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".
 

Document Type and Material Type

Document Type (1001) is defining the primary document type of the record. Material Type (1031) includes all the document types, including primary and additional information, so that all records that include that document type information is included. So while searching "rec" in the document type index (1001) is only sound records that have been cataloged with that as it's primary type, the same term in the material type index (1031) will also pull up items that include sound records, including attached material.

While all the values indexed in document type are also indexed in the material type index, some search terms in the document type index (1001) are different in the material type index (1031). These codes are described below.

• art is for Article, chapters, papers, etc. as the primary document type in document type index
• acp is for the same type of material, with additional article items, in material type index
• art is for 3-d items or artifacts in the material type index
  
   
• bks is for Books that are primarily books and not articles or internet resources in the document type index
• bks is for Books or Text of any kind in the material type index, including articles and internet resources cataloged as text
• bnu is for Books that are not internet resources, including additional items, in the material type index
  
   
• map is for Cartographic Material including maps in the document type index
• cmt is for Cartographic material including records with additional cartographic information in the material type index
• map is only items cataloged as having an 007 to indicate maps in the record in the material type index

Material Type

Material Type data is based on information in the Leader, 006, 007, 008, and looking for terms in specific parts of the record.

Note: The document type terms have already been discussed above. Besides these terms there are additional types of material listed below. Some of these are large subsets of the database that can be used as basic restrictors of limits to searches, such as Fiction, Juvenile, or Microform. Some of the terms listed here will be searchable but not generate a display feature, generally because a more precise term is also indexed, and this is the one displayed. For example, juv or Juvenile is indexed for all types of juvenile audiences. However, this code does not appear. Only the more precise code reflecting the catalogers definition of the item is included, such as pre for preschool audience. For those codes without displayable fields are shown, "no field" is shown under field.

Material Type values include:

Musical Composition

Musical composition comes from the 008 and 047 codes. The values are as follows:

Music Number

Likewise, the Music Number search (51) is not generally used by FirstSearch users, but is valuable to the music student and professional information expert. The Music Number index has also started to include publisher numbers for other items.

Both the keyword and phrase search of this data has "normalized" the data to make it more consistent.

Rules for normalizing the data are given below:
 

• The data is concatenated, removing punctuation up to parentheses, commas, and dashes (double hyphens). Numbers in parentheses follow the same rules. So "ab 123" and "ab.123" and "ab-123" all are searches as "ab123". However, two spaces makes it a new number. So "ab 123" is "ab123," but when two spaces are used, it's "ab" and "123".
• Each number up to a comma space is indexed alone. So [028 #a ab123, ab124, ab125] has three numbers that are searchable: "ab123," "ab124," and "ab125."
• Numbers up to dashes are indexed, plus possibly the series between the dash. The series is indexed only if the beginning of the second number after the dash matches the beginning of the first number. So [262 #c ab123--ab125 has three searchable terms: "ab123," "ab124," and "ab125." However, if the ab does not start the next number, the range is not searchable. So [262 #c ab123--ac125] has two searchable terms, "ab123 and ac125." However, [265 #c ab123-ab125] has three searchable terms, "ab123", "ab124", and "ab125". While the start and ending of a series are always indexed, the range is only indexed up to the first 20 values.
• Information within parenthesis behaves as if it is a new field, with all the rules included. So [028 #a 123--125 (cd345--cd347, dd123) ] has searchable "123," "124," "125," "cd345," "cd346," "cd347," and "dd123."

Classification searches

The classification number searches have all spaces and punctuation removed except periods. The searches with this rules are National Agricultural Library (use 18), Dewey Decimal (use 13), National Library of Congress (use 16) National Library of Canada (use 5055) and National Library of Medicine (use 17).

Note, the Dewey Decimal index will index classification numbers up to each slash or prime number also. So a Dewey number of 123.4/56/789 will be indexed as 123.4 and 123.456 and 123.456789. Further, a specialized index to provide the version of Dewey being used (use 6100) can also be searched to limit results to only that version of Dewey.

The NLM Call Number (use 17) phrase includes both subfields 'a' and 'b' together as a single term. The word search only includes the subfield 'A'.

The Universal Decimal classification number (use 14) has all spaces and punctuation removed except periods and hyphens.

Known number indexes

Two indexes remove all punctuation including periods: Government documentation number (use 50) and Report number (use 1027). Government documentation also removes all spaces, but Report number keeps the spaces.

ISBNs (use 7) remove and concatenate all punctuation including hyphens. However, a search can be entered with hyphens and get the appropriate ISBN records.

ISSNs (use 8) include the hyphens in the search only.

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, ISSNs, 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.

Local holdings indexes

These indexes are from the local holdings data (previously known as union list data) retained in WorldCat. The indexes retrieve records with local holdings information that match the characteristic given.

Note that the local holdings present (Use Attribute 6300) can be searched using the word "yes". This retrieves any record that has WorldCat-retained local holdings data.

Also, when searching local holdings by 4-character local holding symbol (Use Attribute 6305), search as the 4-character symbol, space, and then the institution symbol. For example, "oclc ocl" would get all local holdings information for the 4-character symbol "oclc" profiled with the institution with the symbol "ocl". It is possible to search just the 4-character symbol, however, this will retrieve multiple institutions if more than one institution is using that 4-character symbol.