Searching in WorldCat and WorldCat Local
About Expert Searching
Searching Using Field Codes
Suppose you know both the author's last name (e.g., "Wright") and part of the title (e.g., "Hope"). A simple keyword search for wright hope yields over 3,600 results—a lot to wade through if what's you're looking for isn't near the top of the results list.
The reason you get so many results is because WorldCat treats this as a keyword search, and thus looks for occurrences of "wright" and "hope" anywhere in the bibliographic record, and not just in the author and title fields. So, for example, items with "wright" in the title and "hope" in the author's name will also be returned.
You can, however, use field codes or what OCLC calls "index labels" to tell WorldCat to look for "wright" only in the author field and for "hope" only in the title field.
The above search uses the code pn: to specify that "wright" is part of the author's personal name and the code ti: to specify that "hope" is part of the title. It returns only about 5 results—a lot less to wade through!
There are about 30 different field codes you can use, but these are the most useful:
| au: | author |
| kw: | keyword |
| lc: | call number |
| pn: | personal name (use this for authors) |
| su: | subject |
| ti: | title |
Limiting Searches by Collection Location
Another use for field codes or OCLC "index labels" is restrict your search to particular areas within the CTS Library collection. The main areas are:
| Circulating | lower floor; our main collection of items that can be checked out |
| Class Reserves | top floor behind the Circulations counter; items can be checked out for 2 hours at a time |
| Cong Resource Center | top floor; these items can be checked out |
| Heritage Room | lower floor; special collection devoted to the Restoration Movement; cannot be checked out |
| Rare Book Room | lower floor; cannot be checked out |
| Reference | top floor; these items can't be checked out |
To restrict a search to one of these locations, use the field code b8: along with the first word in the location area above.
| b8: circulating | Limit search to the Circulating collection. |
| b8: class | Limit search to Class Reserves. |
| b8: cong | Limit search to the Congregational Resources Center collection. |
| b8: heritage | Limit search to the Heritage Room collection. |
| b8: rare | Limit search to the Rare Book collection. |
| b8: reference | Limit search to the Reference collection. |
Finally, you can combine b8: with the other field codes to create more complex searches. For example,
will search for items in the Congregational Resource Center that contain "Christmas" somewhere in the title.