WorldCat Discovery release notes, 31 July 2024
Release Date: 31 July 2024
Introduction
This release of WorldCat Discovery includes the following enhancements:
- Expand search results with locally preferred subjects
- View additional search terms when expanding your search with related terms
Many of these enhancements are the direct result of your feedback.
New features and enhancements
Expand search results with locally preferred subjects
Please note: No part of this feature changes local or global bibliographic data. The display and search expansions are specific to your institution’s WorldCat Discovery interface only. Users can always search the underlying controlled data to return search results even if the interface does not display them. The language used below is for illustrative purposes. Please consult your local community for language that best reflects their values.
You can now add locally curated subjects to your library’s WorldCat Discovery search experience. This means there are now two local subject curation features that work together – local subject re-mapping and local subject search expansions.
The following video demonstrates how the locally preferred subject features work together: https://youtu.be/JPkMWe41LRg.
As a prerequisite to this feature, follow instructions to implement locally preferred subjects. After you have configured local subject replacements, you are ready to implement locally preferred search expansions.
Local Search Expansion template
Access the Local Search Expansions template here.
Here is an example entry:
Local search expansion column definitions:
|
Column |
Definition |
|
Regio |
The standard country code as described in Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49).
|
|
Symbol |
Your institution's unique OCLC symbol. |
|
Category |
The category of the group of terminology that reflects the same value. |
|
User entered search query* |
Either the search terms that the user enters in the search box, or when a subject heading link is clicked. |
|
Search expansion of user query* |
The terms that should be searched in addition to the user’s original query. It is highly recommended that this is typically the corresponding controlled heading to ensure adequate search recall. |
|
Sensitivity of Search expansion* |
Either “Inclusive” or “Exclusive.” Exclusive terms will not display to the user by default. |
*Required fields
Once your institution has defined the subjects you want to expand locally, this template can be uploaded into Service Configuration as a tab-separated values file (.tsv or .txt). To turn on this feature and upload your local template, navigate to Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery > Search Settings > Search expansion settings > Local Search Expansion.
Best practice
The best practice to use this feature is to map the user-entered search query to a controlled heading, though you can add additional terms as you wish. This will ensure that your local terms always bring back the full results list using the controlled heading. As an example, here are search results with and without the controlled heading as a local search expansion for the local subject ‘people experiencing homelessness’ (the controlled heading is ‘homeless persons’).
Sensitivity messages
Subject headings that have been expanded with local search expansions will no longer present a warning message before the search is run, as the expansion should re-map the local expansion to the controlled heading. When the mapped subject heading chosen for a local search expansion is considered Exclusive, it will not display to the user by default. Instead, a sensitivity message will display. The sensitivity message can also be configured at Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery > Search Settings > Search expansion settings > Local Search Expansion.
Expanded Search Terms modal with sensitivity message, displayed when a user clicks ‘We expanded your search to include related terms’ at the top of their search results.
Subject headings that have not been expanded with local subjects will continue to use the existing warning message before the search is run:
Subjects modal with content warning for sensitive terms, displayed when a user clicks a hotlinked subject heading
View additional search terms when expanding your search with related terms
The number of terms included in your search expansion is increasing. Currently, a maximum of five related authority terms are added to your search. With this new release, you will get:
- Up to five related authority terms added to each clause in your search
In this example, a total of eight related terms are included. The search ai OR green would be eligible to receive up to 10 relate terms since it includes two search clauses.
- Up to five locally preferred terms added to each clause in your search
In this example, the search for pangender people is expanded to include three locally preferred terms but could include up to five locally expanded terms.
Known issues
View a new configuration setting for News Articles
With this release you will see a new setting for News Articles within Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Search Settings > Search expansion settings. This setting is currently disabled. It anticipates a future ability for you to configure whether your users can choose to include news articles or exclude them from a given search. Further information about this feature will be shared during future community events and in release notes.
Important links
Product Website
More product information can be found here.
Support Websites
Support information for this product and related products can be found at:
Include Request ID with problem reports
When reporting an issue with WorldCat Discovery, it is extremely helpful to include the Request ID. The Request ID is found at the bottom of the screen where the issue occurred. Including this information allows us to directly trace what happened on the request we are troubleshooting.
