WorldCat Discovery beta: User Interface Improvements
The WorldCat Discovery installation on March 20, 2019 included the following new features and enhancements.
The running list of release notes can be found at https://help.oclc.org/Discovery_and_Reference/WorldCat_Discovery/Release_notes. (Note that many of these enhancements do not have an impact on Melvyl since we are currently using WorldCat Local and are only in Preview mode for WorldCat Discovery.)
User Interface Improvements
Several interface updates demonstrate OCLC’s ongoing commitment to providing a better search experience for WorldCat Discovery users. Better alignment of selected filters, more informative text, and modernized default book icons will help users focus on information in search results rather than on their display.
Improved alignment of selected filters text. When users select facets and filters to narrow their search, the text will now center on the “X” displayed within the Selected filters section.
New default cover art image for books. Users will now see a new image displayed for books when a cover art is unavailable. This image will display in brief results and on detailed pages in the WorldCat Discovery interface.
Improved description of Editions & Formats accordion on detailed WorldCat Discovery views. In December, most accordions in WorldCat Discovery were enhanced to indicate to users that more information was located within these sections. In this release OCLC has updated Editions & Formats text to reflect the call-to-action language present on other accordions. Text on the Editions & Formats accordion will now display as “Explore Editions & Formats” in detailed views of WorldCat Discovery.
Links from brief search results will match updated language of Editions & Formats accordion on detailed views. To help users understand the relationship between the content on brief results and detailed views of search results, OCLC has updated the language of the Editions & Formats link to reflect the text on the detailed view Editions & Formats accordion. The brief result link will change from “View all editions & formats” to “Explore all editions & formats”.
Bug Fixes
IIIF images using URLs that contain http will now display in WorldCat Discovery. When hosted CONTENTdm images use an unsecured URL, WorldCat Discovery will now display the image within the IIIF viewer.
Automatically update databases for saved searches when a database is no longer available to an institution. Saved searches WorldCat Discovery will automatically search only databases that are currently available to an institution. Previously, when saved searches attempted to search a database that was no longer enabled, users would encounter an error message.
Expert searches using Boolean operators in non-English languages display correctly. When using Boolean operators in a search and selecting a non-English language from the WorldCat Discovery interface, users will no longer see the “+” symbol display in addition to the Boolean operators in the search box.
Date of meeting or treaty signing title metadata will now display in WorldCat Discovery. Users searching WorldCat Discovery will now see MARC field 111 for Main entry—Meeting Name, subfield d for Date of meeting or treaty signing appear in brief results and detailed views as part of item title metadata when present in the bibliographic record.
WorldCat Discovery (WCD)
WorldCat Local is being replaced by a new discovery interface, WorldCat Discovery. The end of life date for WorldCat Local is August 9, 2019 at which time URLs from WorldCat Local will be redirected to WorldCat Discovery. Campuses will switchover at the end of their academic term before August 9, 2019.
Read the announcement of the switchover for details (dated February 12, 2019).
Information on WorldCat Discovery for the UC campuses is available on the WorldCat Discovery Beta webpage. This webpage includes
- Links to the UC campus (and union) WorldCat Discovery instances where you can test drive the functionality
- Dates for campus switchover