WorldCat User Guide
WorldCat contains entries for more than 60 million books and materials located in libraries worldwide. Each entry indicates which libraries own that item. A major feature is the OCLC ILL Direct Request service, which allows UWM-affiliated users to request books from other libraries directly online, while searching the WorldCat database. To search only within the holdings of Wisconsin libraries, click on the "Databases" button, and select 
.
Basic Searching
In the Basic Search, select a search option located below the "Search in database" line: Keyword, Author, or Title (ISBN and Year are also available).
- For a Keyword search, enter words or phrases. Phrases must be surrounded by quotation marks. The resulting list will consist of entries containing all the words or phrases entered. Example: "acid rain" pollution
- For an Author search, enter the author's name separated by a space. If entering the information "firstname lastname" be careful when an author uses an initial or middle name as this might affect the number of results.
- For a Title search, enter the title of the item. Omit the initial article (a, an, the). Title searching searches for that phrase as an exact title and as a phrase within a title, which may retrieve results that appear unrelated.
- From the results of a search, click on
(Related Subjects) to browse the Library of Congress subject headings found in the entries of the retrieved results.
- To browse the list of names of main or added authors in the list of retrieved results, click on
(Related Authors). Click on the name to retrieve the items by that person.
Advanced Search
In the Advanced Search, use the drop down menus to select which part of the catalog entry to search; e.g., keyword, author, title, publisher, ISBN, material type. To browse the lists of authors or subject headings within the retrieved items, click on or .
- There are four possible limits in an Advanced Search. To limit by language, use the drop down menu. To limit by date, type a single year or range of years. To limit by document type, click in the box adjacent to the preferred choice (e.g., books, visual materials, sound recordings). To limit to a specific library, use the library code for that library (contact the RIS Information Desk for assistance). To limit to items in the UWM Libraries, click in the box next to "Items in my library (GZN)."
Viewing results
- To view the entry for an item from the "List of Records," click on the item's title. This will display the "Detailed Record."
- To display a list of libraries that have this item in their collection, click on "Libraries Worldwide That Own Item." Any libraries located in Wisconsin that have the item will be at the top of the list. The next libraries will be grouped alphabetically by state, then by institution.
Limiting results
- To restrict results by year, document type, language, or particular library before performing the search, use the Advanced Search.
- To limit the results by author, document type, year, language, or subject heading after performing the search, click on the
(Limit) icon. For each type of limit, click 
to display the available criteria for limiting. Click in the box next to each criteria to be included, then click "Search."
- For a quick method to limit retrieved results by document type, select the choice from the tabs at the top of the results lists.
Printing, e-mailing, saving results 
- To print a single entry from the "Detailed Record" screen, click on (Print) to display the record for printing. Then, complete the print command in the pop-up box. To include the list of libraries that have the item, follow the same steps from the "Libraries Worldwide That Own Item" screen. The list of libraries does include the entry for the item.
- To e-mail a single entry from the "Detailed Record" screen, click on (E-mail). Enter the e-mail address, record detail level, record format, and click "Send." To include the list of libraries that have the item, change the first option on the screen to the "Holdings" option. The list of libraries does include the entry for the item.
- To save the record, use the Save as from the browser bar or click [Export] and save the record in EndNote, RefWorks, or as a textfile.
Requesting materials directly via Interlibrary Loan
- After locating a citation, click on the title to display the "Detailed Record." Verify that this is the correct record for the item needed. Many titles have more than one record, including records for different editions, languages, or formats, such as microfilm. Videos, sound recordings, and mixed media materials often do not circulate via ILL: electronic books are usually licensed only to that individual institution.
- Note the "Availability" field. This will indicate if the item is owned by the UWM Libraries.
- To initiate an Interlibrary loan request, click on
and click on the link for InterLibrary loan. Log in and fill in all of the required fields (required fields have an asterisk and are in red). Use only an UWM e-mail address, e.g., yourname@uwm.edu. Use the "Comments" field for any special instructions, such as "volume 2 only", etc. Click on "Submit" at the bottom of the form to send the request. A message will display stating "Your ILL request was sent successfully."
Help
Help is available from any page by clicking on the [Help] icon.
Exit
To exit, click on "Exit' in the upper right of the screen.
JE/llb wldcat50 04/10/2008