AP Wesley Chapel HS: Basic Searching in OCLC WorldCat

Searching is an art form; the better you understand the system, the more likely you are to get good results. OCLC worldcat's Aquabrowser's main search page (pictured above) has three options to help you locate materials:

1. Search
• Enter your key words in the text box and press Enter (or click 'Search') - a keyword search looks for your search term(s) anywhere in the card catalog, not just in the title field.
• In the central panel, you will get search results, ranked by relevance.
• Click on a result for a full view with holding information.
2. Refine
• After you have completed your search, you may want to show fewer results, by "refining" your results. This is called "faceted searching"
• To the left of the results list is the "faceted search" or refine section. A "faceted search" means you can limit your results by set criteria, such as a date rage, and author, or a format, like journals of e-books.
• You can narrow your search by author, ebook, date range, etc.
• Click on any of the refine set terms to focus and narrow your results.

In this video, you will learn how to complete a basic search using OCLC Worldcat, the library's online catalog.

The video will show you how to search for information, and how to refine your search after you have done your initial search using faceted searching, and how to limit your results to just one format, such as peer reviewed journals.

This is a quick tour of the basic searching features of OCLC worldcat.