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WorldCat Discovery beta: Accessibility updates for improved discovery

May 9, 2019 Author: Jayne DicksonCategories:

The WorldCat Discovery installation on May 9, 2019 included the following new features and enhancements.
The running list of release notes can be found at https://help.oclc.org/Discovery_and_Reference/WorldCat_Discovery/Release_notes. (Note that many of these enhancements do not have an impact on Melvyl since we are currently using WorldCat Local and are only in Preview mode for WorldCat Discovery.)

New features and enhancements

Periodical Index and Supplement subfields in local holdings metadata will now display in WorldCat Discovery. In order to provide users with more information when local holdings for a periodical containing supplementary or index items, WorldCat Discovery will now display the following fields with other Local Holding Record content.

  • 867 subfield a
  • 868 subfield a

Accessbility updates for improved discovery. WorldCat Discovery is committed to continually improving accessibility. For the best experience searching WorldCat Discovery, we recommend that users always open the screen reader before opening a web browser and use the following screen readers paired with the following operating systems and browsers:

Updated header titles for improved screen reading. OCLC has updated the header on pages for WorldCat Discovery users utilizing a screen reader. Prior to this release the title of the page read as if it were a run-on sentence. We have updated the following pages with improved descriptions:

Reduced alert notifications when using JAWS screen reader. When using a screen reader (JAWS) to enter a search on the Discovery homepage, predictive text alerts were repeated to the point of distracting the user. Now the alert rate has been reduced to notify users of search suggestions.

Bug Fixes

Season codes will now translate. When searching WorldCat Discovery and viewing a local holding records that was created with a season code in the 863 $j, users will now see the code translate into the appropriate translation of that season in all supported languages.
Local Holding Records will no longer display duplicate lines of availability when textual holding pairs are used. When textual holdings are used in conjunction with the following fields, WorldCat Discovery will no longer display duplicate line of availability.

  • 866/876
  • 867/877
  • 868/878
  • 865/878

Example of 867/877 textual holding pair in WorldShare Record Manager:

Private notes no longer display in detailed views of WorldCat Discovery. WorldCat Discovery users that have included private notes in Local Bibliographic Data the 590 field that contains a first indicator value of 0 for private will no longer see the metadata display in WorldCat Discovery. These private notes will only be viewable within WorldShare Record Manager.

WorldCat Discovery (WCD)

WorldCat Local is being replaced by a new discovery interface, WorldCat Discovery. The end of life date for WorldCat Local is August 9, 2019 at which time URLs from WorldCat Local will be redirected to WorldCat Discovery. Campuses will switchover at the end of their academic term before August 9, 2019.
Read the announcement of the switchover for details (dated February 12, 2019).
Information on WorldCat Discovery for the UC campuses is available on the WorldCat Discovery Beta webpage. This webpage includes

  • Links to the UC campus (and union) WorldCat Discovery instances where you can test drive the functionality
  • Dates for campus switchover