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WorldCat Discovery beta: MARC Record Refinements

October 5, 2016 Author: Jayne DicksonCategories:

 

wds
This month’s WorldCat Discovery installation on September 29, 2016 included the following new features and enhancements.

The running list of release notes can be found at http://www.cdlib.org/services/d2d/melvyl/public/. (Note that many of these do not have an impact on Melvyl.)

New Features and Enhancements

Cite button displays on result list. The Cite button now displays next to each record in search results, so it is more visible to users.

 

cite
MARC record refinements. OCLC recently shared a two-phased approach to implement MARC record point-of-need authentication. In the initial phase, the MARC record link was repositioned within the library staff view. Phase two includes a contextual MARC record view and an optimized MARC record print process: 

Maintain context when viewing a MARC record

  • After clicking the MARC link, users can authenticate with their staff login and password to view the record.
  • WorldCat Discovery then takes users back to the record and displays it as a “modal dialogue” (which means users can’t click behind the dialogue box) on top of the side panel or detailed record.
  • Closing the dialog box with the MARC record display returns users to their previous location (the list of search results or detailed record)—without requiring backward navigation.

Optimized MARC record print process

Authenticated users can now print well-formatted MARC records. Here’s the process:

  • User opens the MARC record display.
  • The “Click to print” link generates a MARC record print view.
  • A print window automatically displays and users can choose browser printing options.
  • After printing, users can click the back button to return to the record display.

See example below:

 

marc_print

 

Sort by relevance options positioned with search results. The “sort by” choices now display at the top of the search result list. This visually ties sorting options with search results and separates the sort function from the facets on the left side of the screen that are used to refine search results. All sorting dropdown options are still selectable and sorting functionality has not changed.

See example below:

 

sortby

 

WorldCat Discovery (WCD)
OCLC is working on major changes to WorldCat Local: a new discovery interface with major functional and design improvements. WorldCat Local will be replaced by a new platform called WorldCat Discovery.

Information on the WorldCat Discovery (Beta) for the UC campuses is available on the WorldCat Discovery Beta webpage. This webpage includes

  • Links to the UC campus (and union) WCD-Beta instances where you can test drive the functionality
  • OCLC’s project timeline (e.g., when will UC migrate to the new platform?)

FirstSearch

In March 2016, OCLC announced it was keeping FirstSearch as a separate product rather than merging it into WorldCat Discovery as originally planned. We do not yet have a timeline for the new FirstSearch beta.