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WorldCat Discovery User Guide

Search Results

  • The search results will include all items (print and electronic) available from North-West University and libraries worldwide, depending on the Search in these libraries' settings.
  • Author names are hot-linked on search results, in the Item Detail, and under Editions & Formats. You may click the name to trigger an author keyword search.

    Refine filter

 

Filter and refine search results.

Search relevance indicators

  • Search relevance indicators underline matching search terms in yellow in the result entries.

    Filter
  • Determine whether to retain the specified filters for subsequent searches by selecting Retain Filters.
  • This option displays when filters have been selected to narrow your search to brief results.
  • If this setting is not enabled, search filters will be cleared when a new search is performed. This feature will be disabled by default.
  • Select Clear Filters to remove the filters currently applied to the search results.

    Filter

 

  • You can narrow the results from your initial search by using the filters available in the left column of the results screen.
  • Check the boxes beside the filter(s) you desire.
  • Filters can be used multiple times throughout a search session. Your filters can be reapplied to preserve your search context without manually selecting them for each additional search in a single session.

    Filter
     

Sort

  • Change the sort order of the results.
  • Select your Sorted by filter from the drop-down menu in the screen's upper right corner. Options include:
    • Best Match
    • Recency
    • Library
    • Author (A-Z)
    • Date (Newest First)
    • Date (Oldest First)
    • Most Widely Held
    • Title (A-Z)
Sort Option Behaviour
Best Match Blends Title, Author, Date, and Worldwide Holdings with an emphasis on Title.
Recency Blends Date, Title, Author, and Worldwide Holdings, focusing on Date. 
Library     Considers individual holdings first, then blends Title, Author, Date, and Worldwide Holdings. 
Author (A to Z) Sorts by special characters or numbers in the first name, then A to Z by the last name. 
Date (Newest) Sorts chronologically by publication date, with the newest items listed first. 
Date (Oldest) Sorts chronologically by publication date, with the oldest items listed first. 
Most Widely Held Presents an "unclustered" view of search results with an emphasis on Worldwide Holdings in a blend of Date, Title, and Author. Use this option to view the best results for interlibrary loan requests.
Title Sorts by special characters, then alphabetically by Title. Only the article "the" is ignored.

 

Search in these libraries.

  • Search North-West University content (all or by branch) or worldwide.

Limit to

  • Use this filter to select from Full Text, Peer-Reviewed, or Open Access.

Material type

  • Use this filter to limit to a particular format.

Year of publication

  • Use this filter to narrow the results to the last five years, choose a custom year range, or search for a single year.
  • To search for a single year, you must type the year in both fields. For example: from 2019 to 2019.

Filter by subject

  • Use this filter to include subjects like Engineering & Technology.

Author/Creator

  • Use this filter to select works by one or more authors.
  • The Author search filter displays authors sorted by matching record count, highest first. Selecting the Show More option to expand the filter sorts the authors alphabetically.
    • If the expanded, alphabetically sorted view includes author names in multiple scripts, names in Latin are presented first, followed by those in other scripts.

Databases

  • Use this filter to limit results from a single database.

Filter by language

  • Use this filter to narrow results to a particular language.

Search Result Display

  • Use this accordion to group related editions or variant records in the search results. 
    • Show all
      • Select this box to show all records for the search.
    • Hide duplicates
      • Check this box to group variant records.
      • Variant records are records for the same edition but in a different language of cataloguing or a duplicate record that has not yet been merged.
      • Disabling the Hide duplicates filter will show a flat or ungrouped view of the edition cluster.  The flat view shows all records in the search results and does not group by work, edition, duplicate, or the language of cataloguing.
    • Group editions and formats
      • Check this box to group related editions in search results.
      • If enabled, records in search results are grouped by work. 
      • Edition grouping brings records together that have the same:
        • WorkID (title, author, format)
        • Language of publication
        • Sub-format (if applicable)
        • Year of publication
        • Publisher (first entry)
    • If disabled, search results are grouped by edition and will choose one representative record for records for the same edition but in a different language of cataloguing or duplicate records that have yet to be merged. U
    • Users can override the default at any time, and their preference will remain selected throughout their search session.

Expand This Search With

  • Use this accordion to expand the search with related or translated terms.
  • Enable searching to find relevant search terms, including related, variant, or deprecated ones. 
  • An information bar will appear at the top of the search results screen, indicating that expanded terms were used for the search. Select the original search terms to search again without using the expanded terms. Select the include related terms link to see which related terms were used.

Filter