WorldCat Discovery beta: Access DOIs in record descriptions

The WorldCat Discovery installation on July 26, 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

Access the Direct Object Identifier (DOI) in record descriptions.  DOIs are designed to provide actionable, interoperable, and persistent links to digital objects. Users can access the DOI link from WorldCat Discovery record descriptions:

Bug Fixes

Unique Identifiers no longer labeled as OCLC numbers.  Non-WorldCat citations will no longer incorrectly label Unique Identifier control numbers as OCLC Numbers in WorldCat Discovery.

Only items that are part of the WorldCat database will display the control number label as “OCLC Number”:

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. In July 2018, OCLC visually updated the interface to display “an updated, more contemporary look.” The changes are limited to a restyling of the new interface and do not affect functionality, navigation or site structure.