HARRIS LIBRARY

Because it is the best place to locate just about anything and it is online! The online catalog collection represents more than 24,000 libraries in 63 countries. WorldCat is available for free to all of the MSASS / Case Community. WorldCat is part of the OCLC consortium, comprising more than 57 million records for books, serials, manuscript collections, audiovisual materials, computer files, and other media. If the publication you need is not owned by Case and not in OhioLINK, then you may request the material via ILLiad (Harris Library InterLibrary Loan).

Searchable Fields in WorldCat - The following is a list of all the searchable fields in WorldCat and the abbreviation used for that field:

     -KEYWORD kw=
     -ACCESSION NUMBER no=
     -AUTHOR au=
     -AUTHOR PHRASE au=
     -CONFERENCE NAME cn=
     -CONFERENCE NAME PHRASE cn=
     -DESCRIPTOR de=
     -DESCRIPTOR PHRASE de=
     -GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE PHRASE gc=
          (searches geographic subject headings)
     -LANGUAGE ln=
     -NAMED CONFERENCE PHRASE cf=
     -NAMED PERSON PHRASE na=
     -PLACE OF PUBLICATION pl=
     -PUBLISHER pb=
     -SERIES se=
     -STANDARD NUMBER sn=
     -SUBJECT su=
     -SUBJECT PHRASE su=
     -TITLE ti=
     -TITLE PHRASE ti=
     -URL am=

• Ranking - Each of the three search options lists a box labeled RANKING. RANKING refers to the method that the database uses to display your search results. Your basic options are either RELEVANCE or DATE. The information in the box will usually say NO RANKING, meaning that no RANKING option has been chosen. However, the default option for this database is to display the more recently added items first.

If you choose RELEVANCE as the way to rank your results, the database will check each record for 1/ the number of times your search term appears within the record (the more times the term appears, the higher the relevance), 2/ the number of words separating your search terms (the fewer words between your terms, the higher the relevance), and 3/ the uniqueness of the term. The database will then list the items with the highest relevancy rating first and ignore the matter of date.

• Boolean Searching - To search two or more subjects together use the words AND, OR, or NOT.
  
  
• • Use AND to put two or more terms together as in - POVERTY AND OHIO.
    
    
  • Use OR to group similar terms together so that the search picks up all variations such as TEACHING OR TEACHERS.
    
    
  • Use NOT to exclude something from the search: KINSHIP NOT ADOPTION.

• Proximity Searching - You can use proximity searching to find items that contain several words or phrases that can be found within a certain distance. This distance can be up to 25 words. The two major proximity operators are W (with) and N (near).
  
  
• • W = means With. Use it when you search for word or phrase combinations where one word or phrase must be found first, and the second phrase must come after it.
    
  • • Gender w3 Learning [this search would search for any item where the word gender was followed by the word learning disabilities and where no more than 3 words separate the two words].
      
      
  • N = means Near. Use it when it does not matter which word or phrase combination comes first or which comes second.
    
  • • Gender n5 learning [this search would look for any item that contains the word gender and the word learning and where no more than 5 words separate the two terms].

For more information about this wonderful resource tool go to the Research Databases

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