WorldCat

WorldCat is a global network of library catalog, content and services that uses the Web to let institutions (with a global library network of more than 9,000 institutions) be more connected

WorldCat is a database of bibliographic information built continuously by libraries around the world since 1971. Each record in the WorldCat database contains a bibliographic description of a single item or work and a list of institutions that hold the item. The institutions share these records, using them to create local catalogs, arrange interlibrary loans and conduct reference work.

More than 250 million records had been added to WorldCat, spanning six millennia of
recorded knowledge, from about 4800 B.C. to the present. This unique store of information encompasses records in eight formats-books, serials, sound recordings, musical scores, maps, visual materials, mixed materials and computer files. Like the knowledge it describes, WorldCat grows steadily. A new record enters WorldCat every 1.2 seconds.
In 2011, WorldCat grew by 38.9 million records. Libraries used WorldCat to catalog and set holdings for 449.9 million items and arrange 9.6 million interlibrary loan transactions.

Every item in the catalog has a listing of libraries which own it. It contains records for books, journals, musical scores, electronic resources, and much more. It does not include records for individual articles in journals, magazines, newspapers or book chapters.

While Worldcat will provide you with an overview of libraries owning a given book, it will not provide information as to its availability. You will still need to check the holding library’s catalog to see if the book is available, is for library use only, or is currently charged out.

• To search on part of word, use a asterisk (*) as a truncation indicator. (E.g. immigra* will bring up records with the key term immigration, immigrant or immigrants.
• Use the plus sign (+) when you want to search the singular and plural word forms (e.g. refugee+).
• Use ?#? for a single character or “?” alone or with a number for zero to nine characters to search for variations of key terms. (E.g. use wom#n to find women or woman. Colo?r for records containing color, colour, colonizer, and colorimeter)
• Truncation can only be used after the third character of a term.

Choose the operators AND, OR, or NOT in either the Basic or Advanced Search screen to combine two or more search terms to expand or narrow a search. For further assistance in using search operators, click the „Comments? link on the top right, then „Contents of Help? button from menu, and select “Combining Search Terms.”

To rank your search results, choose the Number of Libraries, Relevance, or Date option in the drop-down menu. Records which owned by the most number of libraries will be displayed at the top of result lists. Ranking by relevance displays results by most relevant record at the top of thelist. Ranking by date sorts your results in reverse chronological order, newest items first.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Cataloging for legal materials, Law Journals and Law Reviews, List of Dewey with number of Books, List of Legal Databases and Indexes, List of Legal History Broader Databases.