Searching WorldCat indexes guidelines and requirements

Browsing

 Note: Browsing is not available in WorldCat Discovery.

Browsing scans an index with the intent of finding a matched term or the closest matching term, rather than retrieving records. Selecting a term in a browse results list then retrieves the relevant record(s).

Each index description notes whether the index supports searching only or both searching and browsing.

Browse WorldCat using either:

• A word that appears anywhere in indexed fields and subfields.
• An exact phrase (complete subfield) or whole phrase (complete field), starting with the first word and including all words (but excluding initial articles in titles). The phrase you enter is matched character by character, from left to right, against the characters of the phrase in the index you specify.

The system returns a list of terms showing a match or the closest match, along with terms that precede and follow the matching term. When you open an entry on the list, you see the record or a list of records retrieved for that term.

Available browsable indexes

Index name	Browsable index type(s)		Index name	Browsable index type(s)
Access Method	am:		LCCN	ln: or nl: ln= or nl=
Author	au: au= auw=		LCSH	hl: hl= hlw=
Barcode (LHR)	bq:		Music/Publisher Number	mn: or mu: mn= or mu=
Branch/Shelving Location (LHR)	b8:		Name	au: au= auw=
Call Number (LHR)	l5:		NLM Class Number	lm: lm=
Canadian Class Number	ca:		Personal Name	pn: pn= pnw=
Canadian Subject	he: he= hew=		Personal Name Subject	naw=
Corporate/Conference Name	cnw=		Publisher	pb: pb=
Corporate/Conference Subject	ncw=		Publisher Number	mn: or mu: mn= or mu=
Dewey Decimal Class Number	dd:		RVM Subject	hr: hr= hrw=
Government Document Number	gn:		Series	se: se= sew=
ISBN	bn: or nb: bn= or nb=		Standard Number	sn: sn=
ISSN	in: or ns: in= or ns=		Subject	su: su= suw= or sa=
Keyword	kw:		Title	ti: ti= tiw=
LC Class Number	lc: lc=		Uniform Title	utw=

Guidelines

Follow these general guidelines for browsing:

• Browse any term or phrase that is 3 or more characters in length.
• Include letters, numbers, spaces, or these characters: ( ) &
• Omit initial articles and non-English equivalents from titles (as listed on the Library of Congress website).
• Include hyphens or substitute a space (system treats as two words).
  Example: sca ti:asymmetrically distributed finds both titles, Asymmetrically-distributed variations... and Asymmetrically distributed information...
• Do not use qualifiers, wildcards, or combined terms for browsing.

Tips for browsing

• Truncation. Browsing provides automatic truncation without using the truncation symbol. Type only as many characters or words as needed.
  Example: To browse for the title Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, type tiw=let us now praise famous
• Browse for titles.
  • Use the title phrase index (ti=) to browse for title/subtitle combinations. The title browse index includes 245 ‡b.
  • In Connexion: Use the title whole phrase index (tiw=) to browse for a title proper (cataloger-constructed title access point). The index excludes 245 ‡b.
  • In FirstSearch: Use the Subject All index (sa=) in expert searches. Subject All is the only whole phrase index available in FirstSearch.

Capitalization

Index labels and search terms can be upper- or lowercase or a combination.

Default index

If you do not include an index label, the system uses the Keyword index (kw:) as the default.

Derived searches

 Note: Derived searches are not available in WorldCat Discovery or WorldShare.

Derived searching reduces the number of keystrokes you enter.

A derived search uses a specific number of initial characters from sequential words in a name or title.

• The "derived" segments of the words are separated by commas.
• A word is defined the same as for keyword searching (any character(s) between two blank spaces).
• The number and pattern of letters and commas tells the system which derived index to search.
• In a Connexion command line search or a FirstSearch expert search, using the derived search index label and punctuation is optional if it is the first or only element of the search. Always use index labels and punctuation when combining a derived search with a search in a different index.

Types of derived searches

The following table describes the four types of derived searches:

Index	Index label	Number of initial letters and commas	Minimum key (see general notes)	Index-specific notes
Derived: Corporate/Conference Name	cd:	=4,3,1	4,1,blank	Leading equal sign (=) distinguishes this index from personal name index if you enter without a label. Use in conjunction with a comma (,) and circumflex (^). Example: =mcdo,air,^
Name/Title	nd:	4,4	4,4	For records without 1xx fields, minimum key can be blank,4.
Derived: Personal Name	pd:	4,3,1	4,1,blank
Derived: Title	td:	3,2,2,1	None	Cannot use circumflex.
General notes: Minimum key. The minimum key pattern shows how few letters you can type and still retrieve all possible characters up to the required number of letters. For example, both pd:moza,wol and pd:moza,wol, a retrieve records for Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Use of circumflex. Use a circumflex (^) in any derived search except a title search to exclude a character from its position in the search. For example, to search for the name Harvey, Henry, which consists of only two parts, type harv,hen,^

Guidelines

• Even if a name or title has fewer words than the derived search sequence call for, type all commas. Example: To search for the title Roots, type td:roo,,,.
• Omit initial articles (such as "a", "an, and "the") and their non-English equivalents from title searches or segments, but include if they appear anywhere else in titles (see initial articles listed on the Library of Congress website).
• Include letters and numbers.
• Exclude non-alphabetic and non-numeric characters.
• Exclude punctuation and diacritics.
• If a personal name begins with Mc or Mac followed by an uppercase letter, type m and omit c or ac; if followed by a lowercase letter, include c or ac. Example: To search for MacDonald, Marion B., type pd:mdon,mar,b. To search for Macdonald, Andrew T., type pd:macd,and,t.
• For constructing segments of a personal name search:
  • Use the first four characters of the surname, the first three characters of the forename, and optionally, the first character of the middle name, separated by commas.
  • The surname includes all words that appear before the first comma.
  • Compound or hyphenated surnames: When constructing a derived name search or name segment, treat all parts of a name up to the first comma as the first element of the derived search, whether they are separated by a space or a hyphen.
    Examples:
    Type pd:vanh,car,j to find Van Huell Carolus Johannes
    Type pd:lima, moy to find Li-Marcus, Moying
  • Forename only: If the comma is the last element of the subfield, or if there is no surname, treat each part of a name as separate segments. Treat a hyphenated name as two separate parts.
    Examples:
    Type pd:whit,bul to find White Bull
    Type pd:li,min,t to find Li-MinTau
  • Type pd:henr,vii,k to find Henry VIII, King of England
• For constructing a derived title search or title segment for hyphenated words, treat the words as separate. Example: Type td:asy,di,va,i to find Asymmetrically-distributed variations in traveler-perceived travel times.....
• Do not construct derived searches using non-Latin script data.

Stopwords for derived name searches

Omit the following words as the first segment only from a corporate/conference name and from the name portion of a name/title search.

& a Alabama Alaska American an and Arizona Arkansas Association at Australia Board Bureau California Canada College Colloquium Colorado Commission Committee Commonwealth Conference

Congress Connecticut Council Delaware Department Dept. Division East Federal Florida for Frankrijk Georgia Great Britain Hawaii House Idaho Illinois in India Indiana Institute International

Iowa Joint Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Meeting Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana National Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North North Carolina

North Dakota of Office Ohio Oklahoma on Oregon Organization Parliament Pennsylvania Rhode Island School Seminar Senate Society South South Carolina South Dakota State Subcommittee Symposium Tennessee Texas

the U.N. U. N. United Nations Verenigde Staten University U.S. U. S.  Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West West Virginia Wisconsin Workshop Wyoming

Examples

Omit initial stopwords in search for...	Enter search as...
Corporate author Great Britain Forestry Commission of map(s) published in 1985	cd:fore,com,/1985
Corporate author United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights	cd:econ,soc,a
Corporate name Indiana Supreme Court and title Race and gender fairness	nd:supr,race

Initial articles (such as "a", "an", and "the")

When to omit initial articles

Omit initial articles in the following types of searches:

• Beginning of these searches:
  • Derived title
  • Derived corporate name
  • Title word and phrase browsing (index scanning)
  • Keyword searches: Stopwords are not indexed
• Title phrase (ti=) searches: The system automatically ignores English articles a, an, and the.

When to include initial articles

If a word listed as an initial article on the Library of Congress website is the first word of a search but has a different meaning (for example, ein or un used to mean one, or thé used to mean tea), include the word in a search.

Second indicators and ignored initial character spaces

In cataloging, a second indicator of 1 or higher in a field indicates how many initial character spaces to ignore for indexing, filing, and sorting.

For more information

See a comprehensive list of initial articles on the Library of Congress website.

Internet URLs and the 856 field

When searching for Internet URLs in relation to the 856 field, use mt:url to see if the 856 field exists in an Internet-only resource. It is also possible to search mt:web to retrieve any record with any kind of 856 field. Also, see Access Method for information about searching URLs and the 856 field.

Levels of searching

To give flexibility in search strategy and control over the results, OCLC provides various levels of searching, from simplified to complex.

Levels of searching - Table

Search level name			Description
Connexion	FirstSearch and WorldShare Collection Manager query collections	WorldShare and WorldCat Discovery
Basic	Basic	Basic	Least complex level of searching where you use one search text box and/or various drop-down menus to enter or select the parts of the search. The interface automatically formulates the correct search syntax when you send the search to the OCLC system. Not all indexes are listed in drop-down lists in searching interfaces.
Guided	Advanced	Advanced	Least complex level of searching where you use one search text box and/or various drop-down menus to enter or select the parts of the search. The interface automatically formulates the correct search syntax when you send the search to the OCLC system. Not all indexes are listed in drop-down lists in searching interfaces.
Command-line search	Expert	Expert	Available from any search box. The most complex search level. Requires knowledge of full search syntax, including all parts of a search, the correct order, and format (index labels, Punctuation, search terms, Boolean operators, and Qualifiers).

Examples of searches in this guide are given in full search syntax (most complex format). From full syntax examples, you can extrapolate the parts of a search you would enter or select in boxes and lists to construct a basic or guided form of the search.

 Caution: Although constructed as "real" WorldCat searches that product actual results, the examples in this guide can only illustrate the principles of searching. Because of the dynamic nature of WorldCat, search examples used here may no longer retrieve records or may retrieve too many records.

Non-Latin/non-Roman scripts

The Connexion client and FirstSearch interfaces support all UTF-8 Unicode defined characters for non-Latin script search terms, which includes the following non-Latin, MARC-8 scripts: Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, and Korean, as well as all of the UTF-8 Unicode character sets. For a complete list of supported scripts, see the Unicode character code charts.

 Note: Do not construct derived searches using non-Latin script data. Non-Latin script is not indexed in derived searches.

Modern Standard Arabic

WorldCat Discovery allows you to search and sort using Modern Standard Arabic.

Search for local holdings record (LHR) data

The following table outlines the data elements and fields available to search for LHR data in Connexion, FirstSearch, WorldShare, and WorldCat Discovery.

LHR data elements and fields - Table

Data element	Index label(s)	LHR field(s)
Barcode	bq: kw:	852 p 863 p 864 p 865 p 876 p
Call numbers	nu: kw:	852 k h i j l m
Item-level notes	nt: kw:	506 z 852 z 856 z 863 z 864 z 865 z 866 z 867 z 868 z 876 z 877 z 878 z
Shelving location	b8: kw:	852 a b c

Spacing

In all searches, do not enter spaces between the index label and punctuation or between punctuation and the search term. Example: kw:software

Special characters in Latin script searches

The following table of punctuation, diacritics, and special characters describes how to treat each character when you construct WorldCat search or browse terms.

 Note: For Non-Latin script characters, see Non-Latin/non-Roman scripts.

Special characters in Latin script searches - Table

Name	Character	How to treat in search and browse terms
æ or Æ		Substitute the letters ae.
Acute		Omit and close up the space.
Alif/modifier letter right half ring		Omit and close up the space.
Almost equal to		Omit and leave a space.
Ampersand		Type.
Apostrophe		Omit and close up the space. Omit from word searches. Words preceded by single letter c, d, j, l, m, n, s, or t and an apostrophe are not yet normalized in the system (that is, not indexed together so that a search term with or without the character retrieves the same records). For now, enter both forms combined with OR to retrieve all appropriate records. For example, to search for l'etranger, enter etranger or letranger. Omit from Dewey class number searches; however, if Dewey class numbers contain slashes, the system indexes them both with and without data following the slashes. For example, 123.45/67/89 is indexed as 123.45 and 123.4567 and 123.456789.
Asterisk		Omit and leave a space.
At sign		Omit and leave a space.
Ayn		Omit and close up the space.
Backslash		Omit and leave a space. Type in an access method phrase search.
Brackets and bracketed information		Omit and close up the space. Omit opening and closing brackets and close up the space. Omit brackets and data within the brackets in these two cases: [sic] [i.e. and any following data] Otherwise, include data within brackets in searches.
Breve		Omit and close up the space.
British pound		Omit and leave a space.
Candrabindu		Omit and close up the space.
Cedilla		Omit and close up the space.
Circle above letter (angstrom)		Omit and close up the space.
Circle below letter		Omit and close up the space.
Circumflex, spacing or nonspacing		Omit and close up the space, except include spacing circumflex in URLs. Add to some types of derived searches for greater precision.
Colon		Omit and leave a space.
Combining double grave accent		Omit and close up the space.
Combining retroflex hook below		Omit and close up the space.
Combining inverted breve below		Omit and close up the space.
Combining macron below		Omit and close up the space.
Comma		Omit and leave a space. Some exceptions are: Omit and close up the space if the comma is preceded and followed by a number. Include the first comma in a name phrase or whole phrase search (indexes that include 100 a and 700 a), if it is not the last comma in a subfield. Use to separate the parts of a derived search.
Copyright sign		Omit and close up the space.
Crossed d		Substitute the letter d.
Curly brackets		Omit and close up the space.
Dagger		Omit and leave a space.
Degree sign		Omit and close up the space.
Delimiter		Omit, along with the single letter or number following it, and leave a space.
Division sign		Type.
Dollar sign		Omit and leave a space. If used as a delimiter, also omit the single letter or number following it.
Dot below letter		Omit and close up the space.
Double acute		Omit and close up the space.
Double dot below letter		Omit and close up the space.
Double tilde, first and second half		Omit and close up the space.
Double underscore		Omit and close up the space.
Downwards arrow		Omit and leave a space.
Equal sign		Omit and leave a space. Use to precede a derived corporate name search, but only if index label is not used.
Eszett		Enter eszett, or enter a double s: ss.
Eth		Substitute the letter d.
Euro		Omit and leave a space.
Exclamation point		Omit and leave a space.
Feminine ordinal indicator		Substitute the letter a.
Grave, spacing or nonspacing		Omit and close up the space, except include spacing grave in URLs.
Greater than or equal to		Omit and leave a space.
Greater than sign		Omit and leave a space.
Hacek		Omit and close up the space.
High comma center		Omit and close up the space.
High comma off center		Omit and close up the space.
Hooked o		Substitute the letter o.
Hooked u		Substitute the letter u.
Hyphen (minus sign)		Omit and leave a space.
Icelandic thorn		Substitute the letters th.
Infinity		Omit and leave a space.
Integral		Omit and leave a space.
Inverted (right) cedilla		Omit and close up the space.
Inverted exclamation point		Omit and close up the space.
Inverted question mark		Omit and close up the space.
Latin capital letter ENG		Substitute the letter n.
Latin capital letter ETH		Substitute the letter d.
Latin capital letter EZH		Substitute the letter z.
Latin capital letter G with stroke		Substitute the letter g.
Latin capital letter H with stroke		Substitute the letter h.
Latin capital letter L with middle dot		Substitute the letter l.
Latin capital letter T with stroke		Substitute the letter t.
Latin script letters		Type in upper- or lowercase.
Latin small letter eng		Substitute the letter n.
Latin small letter ezh		Substitute the letter z.
Latin small letter g with stroke		Substitute the letter g.
Latin small letter h with stroke		Substitute the letter h.
Latin small letter kra		Substitute the letter q.
Latin small letter l with middle dot		Substitute the letter l.
Latin small letter long s		Substitute the letter s.
Latin small letter t with stroke		Substitute the letter t.
Left hook		Omit and close up the space.
Left right arrow		Omit and leave a space.
Leftwards arrow		Omit and leave a space.
Less than or equal to		Omit and leave a space.
Less than sign		Omit and leave a space.
Ligature, left and right		Omit and close up the space.
Macron		Omit and close up the space.
Masculine ordinal indicator		Substitute the letter o.
Miagkii znak		Omit and close up the space.
Micro sign		Omit and leave a space.
Middle dot		Omit and close up the space.
Multiplication sign		Type.
Not equal to		Omit and leave a space.
Not sign		Omit and leave a space.
Number sign		Omit and leave a space.  Note: WorldShare and WorldCat Discovery automatically search #searchword as searchword (e.g., #girlboss is searched as girlboss).
Numerals		Type.
œ or Œ		Substitute the letters oe.
Parentheses		Omit and close up the space. Use only when nesting Boolean searches.
Patent mark/subscript patent mark		Omit and leave a space.
Percent sign		Omit and leave a space.
Period (decimal point)		Omit and close up the space for derived searches. Omit and leave a space in word searches except when numbers precede and follow the period. Type the first period in a class number search.
Phonogram copyright		Omit and close up the space.
Pilcrow sign (paragraph sign)		Omit and leave a space.
Plus sign		Omit in word searches. Include in phrase and whole phrase searches.
Plus/minus sign		Omit and leave a space.
Polish L		Substitute the letter I (ell).
Pseudo question mark		Omit and close up the space.
Question mark		Omit and leave a space.
Quotation marks		Omit and leave a space. Use to enclose multiple words in a word search to retrieve the exact sequence of the words.
Right hook		Omit and close up the space.
Rightwards arrow		Omit and leave a space.
Scandinavian o		Substitute the letter o.
Script L lowercase		Substitute the letter l (ell).
Section sign		Omit and leave a space.
Semicolon		Omit and leave a space.
Slash		Substitute a space. Omit and close up the space in number searches and in derived searches. Include as a prefix to "slash" qualifiers. Omit from Dewey class number searches; however, if Dewey class numbers contain slashes, the system indexes them both with and without data following slashes. For example, 123.45/67/89 si indexed as 123.45 and 123.4567 and 123.456789.
Space		Close up multiple adjacent spaces to one space. Omit leading and trailing spaces.
Square root		Omit and leave a space.
Subfield delimiter		(See delimiter).
Subscript minus sign		Omit and leave a space.
Subscript numerals		Substitute the numbers 0 - 9.
Subscript parentheses		Omit and close up the space.
Subscript plus sign		Omit and leave a space.
Superior dot		Omit and close up the space.
Superscript minus sign		Omit and leave a space.
Superscript numerals		Substitute the numbers 0 - 9.
Superscript parentheses		Omit and close up the space.
Superscript plus sign		Omit and leave a space.
Tilde, spacing and nonspacing		Omit and close up the space, except include spacing tilde in URLs.
Turkish i		Substitute the letter i.
Tverdyi znak		Omit and close up the space.
Umlaut (dieresis)		Omit and close up the space.
Underscore, spacing and nonspacing		Omit and close up the space, except include spacing underscore in URLs.
Up down arrow		Omit and leave a space.
Upandhmaniya		Omit and close up the space.
Upwards arrow		Omit and leave a space.

Stemming

 Note: This feature is not enabled in Connexion, FirstSearch, and WorldShare Collection Manager query collections.

Stemming is where each term in a query is treated as a logical OR of the various word forms of the term, so that all records that contain any form of the term are included in the result set. For example, the query ball would be treated as if it were actually ball OR balls OR balled OR balling.

Stemming works with (unanchored) phrase searching "blue dog" would be equivalent to "blue dog" OR "bluer dog" ... OR "blue dogs" OR "blue dogged" ... OR "bluer dogs" OR "bluer dogged" ... etc. dog AND 608295448 returns the record with title field "Dogged hearts".

Stop words

Stop words (also called Common word exclusions) are common words that the system ignores in some types of searches. You can omit them from search items. To use any of these words as search terms, enclose them in quotation marks.