Known issues

This page lists known issues in the WorldCat Discovery application and WorldCat Indexing. Availability dates are subject to change.

Please see the OCLC System Status Dashboard for active issues.

Updated:  February 1, 2024

Current Issues  

Issue Details

Report a Broken Link - We have updated reply emails for the "Report a Broken Link"  form with the following changes:

  • Email messages generated by the form now come from do-not-reply@e.worldcat.org instead of no-reply@e.worldcat.org.
  • The header of email messages generated by the form no longer includes patron contact information. [NOTE:  The "Send me the correct link" checkbox determines whether patron contact information displays in the body of emails.]
  • In some cases the description field will display a "null" value when a message is entered in the form
  • In some cases the Report a Broken Link email does not include the ISSN of the shared record in the body of the email, when the email is sent from the A-Z list page
  • In some cases the link contained in the Report a Broken Link email does not direct email recipient back to the resource. Instead the link directs to a page with the message "We were unable to find direct full text links for this item is displayed"
Include sender's information in the body of the email Resolved: February 2024
Enable ability to 'reply-to' the user's email address Targeted Resolution: TBA
Description field will include the sender's message instead of a "null" value Resolved: April 2024
Display ISSN in the body of the email Resolved: July 2024
Link directs to resource Resolved: July 2024

 

Share Record - We have updated reply emails for the "Share"  form with the following changes:

  • The header of email messages generated by the form no longer includes patron contact information.
Include sender's information in the body of the email Resolved: April 2024
Enable ability to 'reply-to' the user's email address Targeted Resolution: TBA

 

Collection names on A-Z list: In some cases, the collection name as displayed in WorldShare Collection Manager and the collection name as displayed in WorldCat Discovery or the A-Z list do not match. Targeted Resolution: TBA
Date format: Some locales are incorrectly displaying US Date format. Targeted Resolution: TBA
Searches using wildcards: Wildcard and truncated searches are returning inconsistent results. Targeted Resolution: TBA
Date (Newest First) sort: For some search results, some older materials are sorted first, above those published more recently.   Targeted Resolution: TBA

Incorrect holdings: For some articles the Access Options panel is blank

Targeted Resolution: TBA

 

Fixed issues

Fixed issues - table
Issue Fix date
Direct linking: For some materials, the accession number is missing from knowledge base links. Knowledge base links will continue to surface, but may not resolve directly to the article. Resolved: October 2024

Knowledge Base Links:

In some cases, knowledge base links in Discovery resolve to the Journal instead of the article title. In some cases, knowledge base links do not surface on records with format "Encyclopedia Article" in WorldCat Discovery In some cases,  knowledge base links do not surface on records in WorldCat Discovery when the format type in the knowledge base is "eBook" and the format in WorldCat Discovery is "Website"
  • Workaround: Changing the Coverage Depth in Collection Manager from "eBook" to "Other" allows the links to surface correctly.
Journal instead of article Resolved: July 2024
Encyclopedia article Resolved: September 2024
Coverage Depth eBook and Format Website Resolved: July 2024

 

Incorrect holdings: For some items, incorrect holdings display depending on what index the user searches. This could result in full text, hold, and ILL links showing up when a record is viewed from search results but not when it is viewed via the "Share" link. There are multiple aspects to this issue:

There are multiple fixes for this issue.

Some articles are not displaying as held when the ISSN of the parent journal ends in X Resolved: June 2024
Some articles outside of coverage range listed in the knowledge base are showing as held Resolved: Aug 2024
Some articles display as held when searching using the no: index Resolved: May 2024

 

Navigate Bibliographic Records (Beta)

  • For some materials, when the number of relationships exceeds 100 parts, the number of relationships displayed on the item details page is limited to 100.
  • For some materials with fewer than 100 parts, some records do not display all relationships
Resolved: July 2024

Knowledge Base Links:

  • Gale Records: In some cases knowledge base links outside of the coverage listed in the Knowledge base surface on article records in WorldCat Discovery.
  • Non-Gale Records: In some cases knowledge base links outside of the coverage listed in the Knowledge base surface on article records in WorldCat Discovery.
  • In some cases,  knowledge base links do not surface on records in WorldCat Discovery when the format type in the knowledge base is "Audio" or "Other"
Resolved: July 2024

A-Z List

  • In some cases, the Get It Now button does not display in the A-Z list
  • In some cases the coverage/enumeration does not display on the item details page in the A-Z list
  • In some cases the publisher information does not display on the item details page in the A-Z list
  • In some cases searching by ISBN does not return known items in A-Z list. Instead the user will receive the message "We were unable to find direct full text links for this item is displayed". Link resolvers utilizing ISBN may also display this error message.
  • In some cases searching by Journal title does not return known items in A-Z list. Instead the user will receive the message "We were unable to find direct full text links for this item is displayed". Link resolvers utilizing Title may also display this error message.
  • In some cases, links from the A-Z list resolve to the Journal instead of the article.
  • In some cases, links do not surface on the A-Z list page when navigating from Talis Aspire.
Resolved: July 2024

 Knowledge Base Links:

  • In some cases, knowledge base links do not resolve to the correct resource when the start page in the link does not match the start page for the resource
  • In some cases,  knowledge base links do not surface on records in WorldCat Discovery when the title contains diacritics
June 2024
Worldcat Dissertations and Theses database: Searching for records in this database will return zero results. Please search the worldcat.org database and use the Format facet "Thesis, Dissertation" under Book to narrow results. April 2024
ILL Form: For some materials, selecting the ILL fulfillment button from the item details page in WorldCat Discovery results in an "Oops" page. April 2024

Incorrect Holdings:

  • Some articles are not discoverable when search results are clustered
  • Some articles are not discoverable when search results are grouped scoped locally
March 2024
Place Holds: In some cases, when viewing the item details of an article from a journal that your library holds in print, users are not able to successfully place a hold on the volume that contains it. User is presented with the message ‘Ineligible for place hold. No pick up locations available’ February 2024

New result view (Search Alerts Beta Experience): Clustering options should be available in this view, but is not currently functional. 

  • Expected outcome:  All new results will display in the “show all” flat view. Users should be able to cluster the result set as needed.  
  • Workaround: Do not select a different view, other than the “show all” flat view. 
February 2024
Incorrect Holdings: Some records are not discoverable after creation without manual reindexing. A fix was installed to prevent this issue from re-occurring going forward.  OCLC is investigating identifying and re-indexing records previously affected.        January 2024

Incorrect Holdings:

  • Some articles are not discoverable when search results are ungrouped and scoped locally
  • Some WorldCat bibliographic records are not discoverable when search results are ungrouped and scoped locally
December 2023
Shelf Browse: The shelf browse feature on item detail records intermittently does not display results. December 2023

Knowledge base links (brief search results): In some cases for libraries that hold the print and digital version of an item, knowledge base links display on the print version of the item, but not the digital version. This may persist on the item details page.

Workaround: Select "Group editions and formats" on search results or set default grouping for search results to "Group editions and formats". The knowledge base link will display on the representative record.
October 2023

OpenAthens remote access of the WorldShare ILL form: For libraries that use OpenAthens to manage remote access, when a library user requests an item from WorldCat Discovery, the bibliographic fields in the the WorldShare ILL request form are blank.

On 31 July, the WorldCat Discovery request form was retired and replaced with the new WorldShare ILL form. 

If you encounter this issue, contact OCLC Support, which will adjust your configuration so that you can continue to use the WorldCat Discovery form until this issue is resolved.

October 2023

Pagination on Course Reserves: When navigating Course Reserves, selecting the next page of results or the advance arrow does not bring the user to the next page. This is occurring for the "Courses" list as well as "Temporary Items".

  • Workaround for "Courses" list: In this scenario, selecting the advance arrow or the next page of items a second time brings the user to the next page of courses. This workaround does not work for "Temporary Items". 
October 2023

Search link to original query in new results email (Search Alerts Beta Experience): if a user clicks the link to the original search in an alert email, their original clustering selection is not honored when they navigate beyond the first page of results​

  • Expected Outcome: Clustering options should be retained in this view.​
  • Workaround: Recreate the search in WorldCat Discovery.
August 2023
Peer Reviewed Filter: When this filter is selected, the search results are not displaying all peer-reviewed resources that a library may hold.  August 2023

Branch Scoping: If an institution has configured an OCLC symbol (such as a repository database) as a branch, then scoping searches to that branch will not return search results. Results from that branch are still returned when scoped to the local institution. 

  • Workarounds: 
    • Remove the branch from configuration and continue to get results from the local institution scope.
    • Configure the OCLC symbol as a group scope to continue to scope to that branch. 
July 2023
Incorrect Holdings: Some embargoed articles are incorrectly displaying as held when search results are scoped locally June 2023
Full-text embargo: For some articles, held-by statements are not honoring the full-text embargo period May 2023

Search alert notification (Search Alerts Beta Experience): If the subject of an email exceeds 250 characters, the user will not receive any notifications when new items match their search query. 

  • Expected outcome: Limit the Subject of an email to 250 characters so that notifications will be delivered accordingly. Search alert emails contain the following information so we will need to look at adjusting character limits to accommodate:  <number of new items> new items for '<alert name>' from <institution name> 
  • Workaround: Create search alerts with shorter names.  
March 2023
Broken permalinks: Article permalinks from some databases no longer resolve to content. Many of these links will be fixed, but periodically, OCLC must remove content at the request of publishers/providers which may permanently break a permalink. March 2023
Search Error: For some keyword and title searches, users receive an error message instead of search results. Some of the search terms reported include: fluoxetine, fentanyl, mirtazapine, sertraline, escitalopram, tamoxifen, letrozole, ivermectin, carbasalate, the consultant’s toolkit, peaches, paroxetine, Missouri River Basin Studies. March 2023
Saving changes in service configuration February 2023

Potential data loss (Search Alerts Beta Experience): If a user has received a new result email, THEN turns the alert off in My Account AND turns it back on, the “see all new items” button will no longer resolve correctly. User will receive a message that indicates “This link is no longer valid”. 

February 2023
New result view (Search Alerts Beta Experience): Some functionality will be disabled in this view to indicate to the user that they are viewing a list of new items vs typical discovery experience. Since this list of new items is not a user generated search query, the following features will not have any impact in this view: Save Search, Create Alert, Retain Filters, Sort, and Expand this Search. February 2023
Branch scoping: In some instances, holdings display incorrectly when search is scoped to the branch that holds them  October 2022
Locale-based date display October 2022

Multiple e-links

June 2022
Date formatting in availability display March 16, 2022
Course Reserves that contain items from more than one database display an Oops! Page so users are unable to access the item details page.  January 10, 2022
Any search that contains a blank IIIF image will create an error for the entire search results page: "There was an error when displaying your record". October 29, 2021
Some users are reporting that when they leverage the "Share" action and RABL from Discovery, their emails are being sent to spam/junk folder.  October 29, 2021
Permalinks for some records fail with an error message: "There was an error when displaying your record".  October 27, 2021
Some KB links are not appearing for articles that are held.

October 27, 2021

When WMS institutions have configured the "Display hold notes field on Specific Copy/Volume requests to not display on place holds" in the service configuration Place Hold/Request Item module, WorldCat Discovery does not honor the setting. December 16, 2020
When using a search box generated by the service configuration and no results are found, some users cannot successfully select the hyperlink in the informational search bar titled "Do you want to scope up to libraries worldwide"  Workaround: There are two workarounds. If no change to the search box is desired, users can select libraries Worldwide from the facets and filters on the right side of the screen. Alternately, users can adjust the default scope of the search box to be Libraries Worldwide
Branch holding display does not appear when search results are ungrouped

Workaround: Enable grouped display of results when searching branches.

When the filter for the grouped display of results is disabled and only a branch is selected, the “held by” statement displays information for Level 1 Library instead of the selected branch.

"Held by" statement for titles under embargo

Update: As of 12/17/19 we have resolved this issue for most types of Discovery index searches. We are continuing to work on resolving this issue for the no: index search.

In WorldCat Discovery, when an article displays a knowledge base link that has an embargo period or moving wall of coverage, links will correctly display or not display in alliance with the coverage information in your knowledge base title. However, the "Held by" statement uses different logic. It is a known issue that the statement might appear for items not yet available, including those that correctly do not surface links.
 
Similarly, if a journal title in your knowledge base has multiple coverage ranges with gaps in coverage, articles that surface in Discovery search results that fall within the gap of coverage will have a "Held by" statement. 

Note: For proper link display, your settings must be correct:

In WorldShare Collection Manager, Institution Settings > Coverage > Use Coverage to Determine Holdings should be set to Yes In OCLC Service Configuration, under Default Databases and Licensed Content, Treat as held should be disabled for your selections
WMS Institutions with a single pick up location unable to submit place hold requests if the location is not enabled as default in service configuration. October 28, 2020
Removing an item from an existing course removes all titles. August 5, 2020
Editions and Formats on detailed views sort by Library and Least Recent not working correctly. June 6, 2020
Spelling suggestions temporarily disabled. March, 2020
When Level 1 Library scope and a branch scope are both selected, the “held by” statement displays Level 1 Library information rather than branch information. February 27, 2020
When the WorldCat database is saved as the only default database in the metasearch content area of Service Configuration, users are unable to use the no: index to search OCLC numbers. December 19, 2019
On the brief search results page, some branch filters initially display under the “Held by Library” filter, and then disappear. December 19, 2019
Some users are unable to save new filter controls in Service Configuration at worldcat.org/config>WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local>Settings UI. December 19, 2019
Selecting a specific database from the "Databases" facet on brief results is not currently working. July 10, 2019
Images with unsecured URLS from CONTENTdm hosted sites are not displaying in WorldCat Discovery. April 17, 2019
Subsequent ISSN or ISBN searches on the A - Z platform display previous search results. When browsing collections, journal title previews display previous collection titles. February 21, 2019
Some members have reported odd search results when querying more than one database.

January 25, 2019

The January 2019 feature other locally-held formats on search results presents some users with the error page "Oops. Something went wrong."  January 22, 2019
Intermittent issues with linking to records from within the Editions and Formats accordion on detailed views of WorldCat Discovery.

January 18, 2019

Users who have the role of WorldCat Discovery Staff may notice Editions and Formats on detailed views of WorldCat Discovery not loading when signed into WorldCat Discovery.

December 14, 2018

 

 Note: Bug fixes are included in release notes when they are part of a product release. To find recent bug fixes:

  1. Open a WorldCat Discovery release note.
  2. Expand the Table of contents and click Bug Fixes.

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