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WorldCat Discovery beta: More precisely link to author names

June 1, 2018 Author: Jayne DicksonCategories:

The WorldCat Discovery installation on May 31, 2018 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

More precisely link to author names. Use of the author phrase index for author searches from records in search results delivers more precise search results. When a user clicks an author name in search results to search for items by that author, the search is now performed in the author phrase index, to deliver more precise results. For example, a user can click on an author name in search results to find more items by that author:

After clicking the name of the author, the name is searched against the author phrase index to retrieve precise name search results:

Author names will automatically search using last name, first name order when available. An entity or single author name that is not present in the 100 or 700 field will be searched within quotes.

 

Transition from search results to advanced search page with existing search query. When a user moves from the simple to Advanced search screen, a query entered in the simple search box now autopopulates the first box in the Advanced search. This saves time for users who decide to use Advanced search after entering a search strategy in the simple search box.

Original query:

Advanced search populates with original query:

 

 

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.