WorldCat.org interface features

Home menu
Users can find their way (or return) to the WorldCat.org home page, learn more about the site, access help pages, sign up for occasional e-mail announcements and let OCLC know about their ideas or suggestions for the site.

My WorldCat menu
Here a user can view or edit their personal profile, identifying interests, occupation, personal Web pages or RSS feeds, and instant messaging and e-mail addresses. They can also manage their account's settings, changing their password or modifying privacy settings for their profile.

Lists menu
This menu encourages users to take advantage of WorldCat's list feature, a social networking tool that allows them to build public and private lists of library-owned resources. They can link to a summary of active lists and then to individual lists; create a new list; or search for public lists created by other WorldCat users.

Search menu
Quick links to separate keyword search boxes for items held by WorldCat libraries, user-created lists and user profiles.

Sign-in status
A glance tells users whether they have signed in to the site, and encourages new visitors to create an account.

Search bar
This ever-present zone allows a new search to be begun at any point. (Users arriving from partner sites such as Google and Yahoo! can use this box to perform a new search that queries the complete WorldCat database, not the smaller partner subset used in their originating search.) And a link to WorldCat's advanced search lets users construct a more complex query using keywords across multiple indices and limit their results by language, format (such as "only books") and date of publication/release.

Interface language selection
A user can quickly switch the interface language between English, German, Spanish, French and Dutch. (The selection does not affect/limit the search result set or the libraries shown to hold a particular item.)

Results sorting
By default, WorldCat results are presented in order of relevance to the user's search terms. The order can be changed using the "Sort by" menu at the top right of results. You can sort alphabetically by author name, alphabetically by title, or by date of publication in increasing (oldest first) or decreasing (newest first) order.

List creation and maintenance
Users signed into their WorldCat account can work on their personalized lists of library items right from search results. The user checks a box next to the item and saves it either to a new list, one of several default lists, or a previously created list.

Refine Your Search
Search results originating at WorldCat.org include a left-hand "faceted browse" panel that allows users to refine their results by categories ("facets") including author, content (subject), format, language and year of publication. This dynamic navigation, increasingly popular in a variety of Web search facilities, further leverages WorldCat's structured metadata and helps users who may have difficulty narrowing a large result set understand the refinement options available to them.

Users can move between searching and browsing with ease, and comfortably "drill down" to deeper levels of specificity. (Breadcrumb links at page top let them reverse direction, moving back up a chain of facets.) Only populated facets are displayed—so a user never dead-ends to an empty result set—and result counts show a user the number of choices within each facet.

WorldCat detailed record
Basic identifying information from the WorldCat record helps a user judge if they've found the right item. Information displayed can include cover art; title; authors, actors, directors or other creative principals; language and format; publisher; magazine or journal name (for articles); subject headings; and standard numbers. Author links return search results showing other works by the person; subject links return "More like this" results. Items with multiple editions cataloged in WorldCat (such as large-print, audiobook, or translations) display the number of editions as a link (e.g. "15 editions"). Clicking the link reveals content beneath the Editions tab further down the page.

Citations
A WorldCat record includes the ability to generate bibliographic citations for the displayed work. A "Cite this Item" link launches a pop-up window with citations for the five most common citation styles (APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA and Turabian) that users can copy and paste into a document or e-mail. A citation can also be exported, either to a file formatted for EndNote bibliographic software, or directly to the RefWorks online bibliography service.

User actions for record
This zone organizes all possible local fulfillment and social-Web actions available for the displayed item.

• Get It: People using WorldCat.org from physically within your library or on an IP-authenticated connection (such as a campus-wide network) see links that provide direct access to your local catalog record for the item ("Search My Library") and electronic full text ("View Item Online"). All users see appropriate "buy" links for the item (see "Purchase options," below).
• Save It: A user can bookmark this WorldCat record page in their browser's Favorites, or add the displayed item to a personalized list of library items (when signed into a free WorldCat account). From the dropdown menu, the user saves it either to a new list, one of several default lists, or a previously created list.
• Add to It: Users signed into their WorldCat account can contribute their own thoughts to the WorldCat record. They can add a personal rating or review of the item, or collaboratively edit public notes that place the work in context or describe it further.
• Share It: Right-clicking "Link to this Page" places a simplified "permalink" URL for the WorldCat record in a user's clipboard, allowing them to paste the link into an e-mail, blog post, instant messaging client, etc. The embedded AddThis.com widget lets a user add this WorldCat record page to their social bookmarks at more than 30 popular Web sites.

Related local services for IP-authenticated users
For people who are using this interface from physically within your library or are logged in remotely, this "Services from" zone provides links to your online services relative to the displayed item. These services may include a resource sharing request or virtual reference form; access to e-books or full text; or link to the more detailed FirstSearch record. (Links in this zone are determined in part by information entered in your WorldCat Registry institutional profile.)

"Libraries" tab (default display) and additional tabs
To find libraries that own the displayed item, a user enters a 5-digit U.S. postal code, U.S. state name or postal state abbreviation, or province or country name. (A built-in "geomapping" facility may offer the user suggested locations based on their IP address.) Web browsers retain this information, so later searches and returns to WorldCat.org return results for the same location. Other tabs in this zone let users see more about the item or, when signed in with a WorldCat user account, post their own information and opinions:

• Details: Add or edit factual notes about the item or its table of contents; link to an extended "About the Author" profile in WorldCat Identities
• Subjects: Linked subject headings that let users explore similar titles
• Editions: Check for other versions of the item, such as different editions, translations and formats
• Reviews: Users can read ratings and reviews of the item contributed by WorldCat users, or add their own

Library results
Here, users receive a tabular, paged list of nearby WorldCat libraries that own the displayed item based on input location. Approximate distances are shown based on postal-code geographic centers. Range usually begins at the local level, but the user can expand outward to state, regional or worldwide coverage. Where the WorldCat record represents an item with multiple editions or formats, users can narrow displayed results to a specific format.

Individual library listing
A library listing includes a direct "deep" link to the local OPAC record for the displayed item. When the listed library owns the item in additional formats, links to the local OPAC record for those formats are also shown. Users who wish to visit a library or seek research assistance from its librarians can follow links to a library's general information Web page—with street address, telephone numbers and hours of operation—or its virtual reference desk. (Links within the listing are determined by information entered in your WorldCat Registry institutional profile.)

Embedded OpenURL data
Some WorldCat record pages invisibly contain "COinS" bibliographic metadata that, when converted to visible links by a browser plug-in, use link-resolving servers to transparently determine the appropriate library and version of the resource to be presented.

Purchase options
The option to purchase books, media or electronic articles complements library collections by facilitating access to materials that may already be checked out; have long reserve lists; are not held by a library locally; or cannot be obtained through resource sharing or other means within a convenient time period. WorldCat users can purchase books and media through links to trusted e-commerce partners such as Amazon.com, who maintain revenue-sharing agreements that return a portion of sale proceeds to OCLC in support of WorldCat libraries. WorldCat.org has also added purchase links for millions of electronic research journal articles available through the British Library Direct service.

Browser plug-ins
Users are encouraged to install one of several integrated search plug-ins that provide always-there access to WorldCat.org results from their Web browser's toolbar or their personalized Google home page.