Summit on WorldCat-Searching tips

Summit items display first

In this new Summit, items owned by members of Orbis Cascade Alliance display first, followed by any other libraries with holdings in WorldCat.

Except when ... you click on "View all editions and formats." Once you click on that option, that is no longer true; the first titles displayed may be held only by WorldCat libraries.  You may limit the search to Summit libraries by selecting "Summit" in the Search Limit box in the purple bar at top.

Problem: Items at the patron's institution may not show up on that first display. Holdings for the record in the first display are for that specific edition or version.  Holdings for other editions or versions -- including for the patron's own library -- may show up only after selecting "View all editions" (see below)

Keywords,  Phrase searching, and looking for a known item

1. The default search on WorldCat is keyword. WorldCat assumes "and" between individual words in the search, and looks for records with the words appearing in many elements of the record, in any order: titles, authors, subjects, contents notes, identification numbers, etc.  For example, "snow white" yields results displayed in this order:

The Juniper tree, and other tales by Grimm
Snow White
White snow, bright snow
The art of Walt Disney: from Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms

2. Phrase searching, or words in that exact order. Phrase searching is is possible by enclosing the phrase with quotation marks, such as "transfer student orientation" or "history of music." WorldCat looks for records with that phrase anywhere in the area being searched, and not only as the first words of the area searched. See examples in table below and notice where "sustainable building" occurs at the beginning or elsewhere in the field.

3. Truncation: part of a word. Use an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?) to truncate your search. for example,
biolog* methods
(compare with search "biological methods")

4. Results are shown in order of assumed relevancy, and are not in alphabetical order by title or author. Relevancy ranking is based on the following, emphasizing a higher relevancy for

more recently published items
proximity, i.e. the words occur close to each other
items with more libraries owning it
the words occuring in targeted, or more important fields, such as authors, titles, and subjects

5. Advanced Searching is available to search specific elements of information: Author, Title, Subject, or Numbers (ISBN, ISSN, or OCLC). Advanced Searching by ISBN, ISSN or OCLC Number is a very useful way to find a known item that is difficult to retrieve by a keyword search (items with short titles, or common words).

Example of a search using Advanced Search to search Titles only

Title: sustainable building Results:	Title: "sustainable building" Results:
Building sustainable peace Building a sustainable society Towards sustainable building Assessing for learning: building a sustainable ...	Towards sustainable building A primer on sustainable building Sustainable building is escalating Living green: a practical guide to ... Plusminus 20°/40° latitude : sustainable  ... Greening McKim, Mead & White ... Sustainable building design manual

Pass-through search from local catalog to Summit on WorldCat

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View all editions and formats

Items at the patron's institution may not show up on that first display. Holdings for the record in the first display are for that specific edition or version.  Holdings for other editions or versions -- including for the patron's own library -- may show up only after selecting "View all editions"

When viewing all editions and formats, use the facets in the left pane to limit (by language, format, etc).  Results are sorted by newest publication date, but this can be changed to oldest publication date.

Holdings for member libraries

Every member that has holdings known to WorldCat should be included in the list of Summit libraries.

Summit members with holdings are displayed in alphabetical order.

Specific holdings. Click on "check availability for this item" for specific library holdings. Important to know!

• Specific items are displayed only for the first few items shown on the member's local catalog (WebOPAC).  If you see 8-10 volumes displayed, there may be more!
  
• "We were unable to get availability information for this item."  Navigator is sometimes unable to get holdings for that member institution. Please send a problem report. 
• Holdings for serials (continuously published over time) may be displayed in summary only, and not individual items. Holdings for monographs (published in one or more parts) are usually displayed as separate items, and without a summary statement.
• "On order" items: many Summit members add holdings to WorldCat for items only when they have been received and cataloged, not when they are placed on order.

Viewing MARC display

Coded information from the full bibliographic record is not viewable in the Summit catalog on WorldCat.