WorldCat Discovery release notes, 10 September 2025
Release Date: 10 September, 2025
Introduction
This release of WorldCat Discovery includes the following enhancements as well as bug fixes:
- Display Varying Form of Title with MARC 246 field
- Display Copy and Version Identification Note with MARC 562 field
- Support Chinese language search and sort
Many of these enhancements are the direct result of your feedback.
New features and enhancements
Display Varying Form of Title with MARC 246 field
The MARC 246 field will now be visible in WorldCat Discovery, allowing users to view alternate titles on the item details page. Additionally, search terms are now highlighted within this field on the search results page and item details page to help users quickly identify relevant matches.
Details:
When present in a record, the MARC 246 field will display the following subfields:
- $i – display constant
- $a – title proper/short title
- $b – remainder of title
- $n – number of part
- $p – name of part
First and second indicators will be honored:
- If 1st indicator is 0 or 1, the field will display
- If 1st indicator is not 0 or 1, the field will not display
When 2nd indicator is present:
- If 2nd indicator is 0, display “Portion of title”
- If 2nd indicator is 1, display “Parallel title:”
- If 2nd indicator is 2, display “Distinctive title:”
- If 2nd indicator is 3, display “Other title:”
- If 2nd indicator is 4, display “Cover title:”
- If 2nd indicator is 5, display “Added title page title:”
- If 2nd indicator is 6, display “Caption title:”
- If 2nd indicator is 7, display “Running title:”
- If 2nd indicator is 8, display “Spine title:”
When 2nd indicator is not present:
- If $i is present with a value, display $i value
- If $i is not present, no display constant will be generated
The default display label is “Alternative title” but libraries will have the option to configure “Varying Form of Title” or “Additional titles in compilations”
Configuration:
The 246 field is promoted by default but can be reordered within Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Item Detail Settings > Reorder Data Fields.
Visit Item bibliographic detail and Item Detail Settings for additional information and workflows.
Display Copy and Version Identification Note with MARC 562 field
The MARC 562 field will now be visible in WorldCat Discovery, allowing users to view detailed copy and version identification notes on the item details page. This includes identifying markings, version descriptions, and the number of copies held.
Details:
When present in a record, the MARC 562 field will display the following subfields:
- $a – identifying marks
- $b – copy identification
- $c – version identification
- $d – presentation format
- $e – number of copies
- $3 – materials specified
- $5 – institution to which fields apply
The default display label is “Copy and version identification note” but libraries will have the option to configure “Identification note” as an alternative.
Configuration:
The 562 field is demoted by default but can be reordered within Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Item Detail Settings > Reorder Data Fields.
Visit Item bibliographic detail and Item Detail Settings for additional information and workflows.
Support Chinese language search and sort
WorldCat Discovery now includes the following enhancements for modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin) that ensure search results are returned and sorted as a native Chinese speakers expect:
Zoeken
- Tokenization: We tokenize phrases to identify individual Chinese words when indexing records and when parsing queries for word indexes.
- Cross-searching Traditional and Simplified Chinese: Through character mapping, Search terms in Traditional Chinese also retrieve results in equivalent Simplified Chinese, and vice versa.
Sort
- A-Z sort Chinese by stroke count: You may configure additional Author A-Z and Title A-Z sort options for search results that sort Chinese characters by stroke count
These Chinese language searching and sorting improvements complement WorldCat Discovery’s Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese language user interfaces.
Search details:
Your library’s users searching for words or phrases in modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin) now get search results that meet the expectations of native Chinese speakers. This is achieved through:
Tokenization: search for individual words
Because Chinese script phrases are written without spaces between words, to recognize and index individual Chinese words, we apply tokenization to build Chinese word indexes and to parse word index queries. We do not apply tokenization for phrase indexes or phrase index queries.
Indexing of individual Chinese words enables word index searching whereby records containing the query terms anywhere in the appropriate indexed fields are retrieved.
Cross-searching Traditional and Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese are mapped such that, when searching using traditional Chinese characters, a user not only finds material matching the traditional Chinese character search terms but also those matching ‘equivalent’ simplified Chinese characters, and vice versa.
Common words retained
Rather than treating common, frequently occurring, modern Standard Chinese words as stop words whereby we would ignore them for indexing and matching, we retain them to preserve meaning.
When we build word indexes and parse word index queries, we combine adjacent characters into pairs (bigrams). This ensures more precise matching by preserving contextual relationships between adjacent characters.
Sort details:
Previously, WorldCat Discovery sorted search results using a default method that grouped Latin characters first and Chinese characters according to a complex radical-based Unicode order. This was not intuitive for users reading Chinese, as it did not reflect how Chinese characters are typically organized.
With this enhancement:
Chinese characters are now sorted by stroke count (the number of brush strokes used to write the character), a more familiar method for native readers.
Characters with the same stroke count are then sorted by radical, a secondary organizing principle.
When search results include a mix of numbers, Chinese characters, and Latin characters, sorting for both Title and Author follows this order:
- Entries beginning with numbers
- Entries beginning with Chinese characters (sorted by stroke count, then radical)
- Entries beginning with Latin characters (sorted alphabetically)
The Chinese stroke-based Title and Author sort options can be configured to appear on both the search results page and the Advanced Search page. Once enabled in Service Configuration, users will see these options in the sort dropdowns when performing searches in either location.
Configuration:
To enable Chinese stroke-based Title and Author sort options, go to: Service Configuration > WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local > Search Settings > Search Defaults > Language-Specific Sort Options. Enabling these toggles allow these options to appear in the sort by menu on both the Search Results page and Advanced Search.
Once enabled, the new sort options will also appear in the Default Sort section and Advanced Search settings section, allowing institutions to set either option as the default sort for users on WorldCat Discovery search results or advanced search page.
Visit Search Settings for additional information and workflows.
Bug fixes
Accurate pickup location messaging for specific copies
The Place Hold form now correctly displays pickup location messages for items restricted to specific branches. Previously, items that were only available for pickup at one branch incorrectly showed as available at multiple pickup locations, which could mislead users during the request process. Now, when a selected pickup location is not valid for a specific copy, the form clearly states "Unable to pick up from [selected Branch name]" and prompts the user to choose a valid pickup option for that item's owning branch.
Copy/volume and status columns corrected on place hold form
Volume and enumeration details now appear in the Copy or Volume column, as intended. Previously, these details were being displayed incorrectly in the Status column. Now, call numbers, volume, and enumeration information appear in the correct location.
Specific Copies or Volumes table restored on place hold form
The Specific Copies or Volumes table now displays correctly on the Place Hold form. Previously, the table would not appear on some records, and users attempting to submit the form saw an error prompting them to correct form issues, even though no visible errors were present. This update ensures that users can select a specific item and complete their hold request as intended when specific copy selection is required.
Wildcards now honored for locally preferred term searches from item details page
When a user clicks an alternate subject heading on the Item Details page, and that heading has a match (exact or wildcard) in the local search expansion file, the system will honor the local expansion. The search will proceed using the alternate subject heading without showing a warning modal, and the original term will not appear in the search box.
Previously, when the local search expansion term included a wildcard, the system failed to recognize the match. Instead of using the alternate subject heading, it reverted to the original term and displayed a warning modal.
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.
