WorldCat Local: Quick tips for Searching
For more detailed help on using WorldCat Local, click on here.
Keyword Search
WorldCat Local's default is a keyword search. A keyword search uses one or more complete words that are contained anywhere in the item's record, including: titles, notes, abstracts, summaries, descriptions and subjects. Keywords can also be names of people and places that are the subjects of a library resource or a listing in a directory.
Boolean Search
Boolean operators allow you to group, include, or exclude certain terms in your search. You can use these operators:
| + sign: guns+germs+steel | This is the default search operator. WorldCat searching uses +, which tries to find all of the words typed in the search box. Note: Any search for terms without an operator will return items with all the words. |
| OR (upper case): Paris OR fashion | The use of OR, or the | symbol, will search for either of the words listed in the search box. |
| - sign: Paris - fashion | The minus sign will exclude terms from your search. |
| () Parentheses: dog (walking OR feeding OR grooming) | Use parentheses to create more precise searches. |
Phrase Search
A phrase search uses quotation marks to allow an exact match to the phrase searched. See the example below:
| "Blood Chemistry" |
Abnormal blood chemistry values in Hodgkin's disease Blood chemistry tutorials Early blood chemistry in Britain and France |
Wildcards
Wildcards are special characters used to represent additional characters in a search term. They are useful when you are unsure of spelling, when there are alternate spellings, or when you only know part of a term. For example:
| wom#n |
woman women |
| adverti#e | advertize advertise |
Truncation
Truncation allows you to search for a term and its variations by entering a minimum of the first three letters of the term followed by a question mark symbol (?) or an asterisk (*). See the examples below:
| securit* |
security securities securitization |