Tips on Searching WorldCat

WorldCat is the largest single database of information about books. It has information on over 1 billion items and is continually expanding. To access WorldCat, go to http://lib.tcu.edu/ , click on Databases, then "W-Z" > "WorldCat." When you are in WorldCat, notice the small 'v' to the right of "Keyword." Clicking on that will enable you to change the type of search to author, subject, title, etc.

1. Keyword searches

In a keyword search box you can enter words relating to the title, author, subject, etc. If you are looking for a book you are already aware of, an effective strategy is to search for the author's last name and one or two words from the title. For example, if you are looking for the book I See Satan Fall Like Lightning by Rene Girard, you could type into the keyword box [girard satan fall]. Capitalization is not required.

2. Subject searches

Subject searching can be approached from three different angles. 1) You can click on the "Subjects" button toward the top of the screen. That will direct you to another screen in which you can type in a subject phrase. For example, I might type in [death penalty] and the results would tell me that the correct subject phrase in the Library of Congress cataloging system is actually "Capital punishment." If I click on "expand" then I will be led to further subdivisions such as "death row," "last meal before execution," etc. If I click on one of those subdivisions, then I will receive a list of books that have been assigned that specific subject heading. A frustrating aspect of this mode of searching is that names as subjects are excluded. In other words, if I'm looking for books about Martin Luther King, Jr., I can't find them by clicking on the Subjects button. The subjects button only leads to non-personal subjects such as Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site (Atlanta, Ga.).

2) The second angle from which to approach subject searching starts from the first screen, which has the "Keyword" boxes. You can change a "Keyword" box to a "Subject" box by clicking on the 'v.' This allows you to enter subject terms in any order. Since you aren't likely to know the precise Library of Congress headings ahead of time, you would be guessing at likely terms.  

Sample subject searches:  I'm looking for things written about Simone Weil in English. I type [simone weil] in a "Subject" box and change the "Language Phrase" box to English. I'm looking for recent things written about Tertullian. I type [tertullian] in a "Subject" box, and type [2000-  ] in the "Year" box.

3) The third angle from which to approach subject searching is to locate a book you already know of that is on the subject you are interested in. When you locate the record for that book, by doing a keyword, title, or author search, then you can scroll down to find the subject headings for the book and they will be clickable links. If I were to find Duke and Stone's How to Think Theologically, for example, I could click on "Theology -- Methodology" and receive a list of all of the books that have been assigned that subject heading. Note that subject headings may be called "Descriptors," "Named Persons," or "Title Subjects." This third approach to subject searching will likely be the most fruitful for you, as you start with what you know and move out to find other related works.

3. Author searches

If I'm looking for books written by Toni Craven, I would type [toni craven] in the search box, and click on the 'v' to change the field to Author. Another approach to finding books by an author is to locate a record for a book by an author (using a title, keyword, or subject search), then click on the author's name in the record, which will be a clickable link. (Click on the "Author(s)" line, not "Find Items About.")

4. Title searches

You can change the type of search from Keyword to Title or Title Phrase by clicking on the 'v.' Changing it to Title means that you will be searching for words from the title and subtitle of a book, in any order. In other words, if you were looking for The Politics of Jesus: Vicit Agnus Noster, you could search for [politics noster jesus] and it would work. Searching by Title Phrase means that you have to type in the complete title and/or the complete subtitle. So [politics of jesus], [vicit agnus noster], or [politics of jesus vicit agnus noster] would all work.

5. Sorting and refining results

Since the WorldCat database is so large, information overload is often a problem. Subject searching may result in hundreds or thousands of hits. In that case, you need to narrow down your search strategy. Two common ways of narrowing the search have already been mentioned above. You can indicate on the first search screen that you want to limit your results to items published within a certain date range, and also limit the results to English. You can also limit the search results to Books by clicking a box.

6. Other features

When you are looking through a list of results, you can click the check box next to a record, which will put it in a "basket." Later on, you can look at that basket by clicking on "Marked Records." You can then print the list, email it to yourself, or export it to RefWorks. You can request an item through InterLibrary Loan when you are looking at a record for an item we do not own. [ Go to https://library.tcu.edu/interlibrary-loan.asp ] If we own the item and it is checked out, try recalling it through the TCU catalog first. (In the TCU catalog, when you are looking at a record for a book that is checked out, click on "More Information" and then "Request."

Comments on this page should be directed to Charles Bellinger c.bellinger@tcu.edu

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