WorldCat Discovery release notes, 15 October 2025
Release Date: October 15, 2025
Introduction
This release of WorldCat Discovery includes the following enhancements as well as bug fixes:
- Find precise search results using a DOI
- Display your institution’s privacy policy
- Configure and display additional subject vocabularies
- Display enhanced bill messaging in My Account
- Conduct more precise primary title searching with enhancements to the te: index
Many of these enhancements are the direct result of your feedback.
New features and enhancements
Find precise search results using a DOI
WorldCat Discovery now supports searching by DOI (Digital Object Identifier) in both basic search and advanced search. This helps users to locate specific scholarly resources more efficiently by using a precise identifier.
Details
Users can enter a DOI in the basic search box without selecting a specific index. The system recognizes and parses DOIs in various formats, including:
- Standard DOI format (e.g., 10.3352/jeehp.2013.10.3)
- Prefixed formats (e.g., doi:10.3352/jeehp.2013.10.3)
- Full URLs (e.g., https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2013.10.3)
DOIs can be entered on their own or as part of a broader search (e.g., a full citation). WorldCat Discovery recognizes the DOI and returns matching records from both WorldCat and the central index.
When a DOI is part of a larger query, the search is optimized to prioritize the DOI. A message will display to inform users that a DOI was detected, and the search was optimized based on that DOI. Users will have the option to re-run their search without optimization.
Matching terms are highlighted in the search results to show relevance.
In advanced search, users can search by DOI by selecting the "DOI (be:)" index from the drop-down menu.
Configuration
No configuration is required. The DOI (be: ) index will appear in the advanced search drop down menu where DOI is available as a metadata element from the database selected.
Visit Search and use query syntax for additional information and workflows.
Display your institution’s privacy policy
Institutions can now display a link to their own privacy policy in the Discovery footer, giving users access to information that more accurately reflects local data practices. This update allows libraries to replace the default OCLC policy link with a custom URL.
Details
By default, the Discovery footer includes a link to OCLC’s privacy policy. With this enhancement, libraries can override that link with their own privacy policy. Only one link will appear at a time.
Libraries can choose to display the link with default text, formatted as “[Institution Name] Privacy Policy,” or enter custom text (up to 35 characters). If custom text is used, translations must be provided for each supported language.
Configuration
To display a custom privacy policy link, go to Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Display Settings
Visit Display Settings for additional information and workflows.
Configure and display additional subject vocabularies
Libraries can now choose to display subject headings from the following vocabularies on item detail pages:
| Source term code | Subject heading vocabulary |
|---|---|
| doll | Dictionary of letterlocking |
| oabt | Opening Artists' Books: artists' book terms |
| neo | Norske emneord |
| poha | POHA thesaurus |
Configuration
Go to Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Item Detail Settings to enable vocabularies.
- Expand the Select data sources accordion
- Open the Subject Heading Vocabularies tab
- Check Other Source
- Check Select specific sources
- Click in the Specific Sources box to browse or search vocabularies by name or source code
Visit Item Detail Settings for additional information and workflows.
Display enhanced bill messaging in My Account
Patrons can now see a clear summary of their charges in My Account, including total overdue fees, upcoming billing amounts, and billing dates. This improvement supports both assessed charges and accruing fees, providing a more transparent view of account activity.
Configuration
No configuration is required in Discovery. Library staff must configure these settings in the WMS Circulation system. For more information, see the WMS Circulation release notes, October 2025.
Conduct more precise primary title searching with enhancements to the te: index
This release includes several improvements to the Primary Title (te:) index to support more accurate searching.
The index now includes MARC 245 subfields n (Number of part/section) and p (Name of part/section), which enhances precision when searching for multi-part works.
Additionally, the te: index is now available in advanced search when querying the WorldCat.org database. It will be extended to all central index databases in the next release.
Configuration
No additional configuration is needed.
Visit Primary Title for additional information and workflows.
Bug fixes
Citations with diacritics will now display consistent capitalization
Citations in Discovery now correctly handle capitalization following letters with diacritics across all citation styles. Previously, the letter immediately after a diacritic was sometimes incorrectly capitalized, resulting in inconsistent and inaccurate citation formatting. This update ensures that words with diacritic characters follow standard capitalization rules, improving the accuracy and consistency of citation displays.
Important links
Product website
More product information can be found here.
WorldCat Discovery events
Support websites
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 on which the issue occurred. Including this information allows us to directly trace what happened on the request we are troubleshooting.
