Denver Seminary

WorldCat is a comprehensive database that is used to find and access journal articles, books, and other research materials.

Searching using WorldCat

To Access WorldCat:

1. Clicking on Library on the Seminary’s homepage and then clicking on the Electronic Databases link:

2. Click on the WorldCat link, which is found at the bottom of the list of electronic databases:

3. The following search screen appears:

This screen allows the following search options to be used:
a. Up to three different individual criteria to be used at the same time
b. The search results can be limited to reduce the number of items found in the search results
c. The results can be ranked according to date or relevance

To Conduct a WorldCat Search

WorldCat can be used to search for:

a. Individual criterion, such as searching for a specific author of title
b. Multiple criteria, such as searching for an author and title

This example will focus on a subject search.

1. Enter the subject in the first search criteria box:

2. Select subject from the keyword dropdown list next to the author’s name:

3. Click on the search button at the top or on the bottom of the screen.

4. The search results will then display:

This list of items displays the following information:
a. The title and author
b. The source of the item
c. The type of item
d. A link to other libraries that might have it
e. An option to find out more information about the resource

Using WorldCat Search Results

WorldCat search results can be emailed and/or printed out.

Emailing search results

Results can be emailed by:

1. Clicking in the check box next to each desired result:

2. Once all the results have been selected, click on the e-mail Icon: 

 
The following screen opens:

3. Click in the circle next to Marked Records to email the selected results:

4. Select how much detail you want for each result:

5. Select the record format:

6. Enter the sender information:

NOTE: Only the email address is required. All other information is optional and does not have to be included.

7. Once the sender’s information is entered click on the send button, , which can be found at the top or the bottom of the screen.

Printing Search Results

Search results can be printed out as a hard copy. However, they can only be printed out one screen at a time (one screen = ten records). To print out the desired results:

1. Select the desired results:

2. Click on the Print icon

This will print the current list of results, including marked and unmarked results.

3. Go to the next set of results and repeat steps 1 and 2 until all desired results are printed out.

Limiting Searches

From the search results screen, it becomes apparent that WorldCat can return thousands of items for any given search (ours returned over 14,000). Being able to limit the search to specific types of documents would be very helpful.

WorldCat provides a number of ways to limit a search. These include limiting a search by:

• Language
• Media type
• Subtype
• Rank

Limiting the Language

To limit the search by language:
1. Click on the dropdown arrow for language in the Limit To section:

2. Select a language from the list:

3. Click on Search at the top or bottom of the screen to run the limited search.

Limiting the Media Type

WorldCat provides many types of media to choose from: Books, visual materials, articles, and several others. For the purposes of this document we will focus limiting a search to books. To limit a search to only books:

1. Click in the box next to books in the Limit type to section:

2. Click Search to run the search

Limiting to Subtypes

WorldCat also allows a search to be limited to subtypes. The search can be limited by audience, content, and format. This example will focus on limiting the search by audience.

1. Click on the dropdown arrow for the Any Audience dropdown list in the Subtype limits section:

2. Select the desired subtype

3. Click on the Search button at the top or bottom of the screen.

Ranking Search Results

WorldCat allows the search results to be ranked in four different ways. The following will focus on ranking the results by relevance.

1. Click on the dropdown for the Rank By list box:

2. Select Relevance from the dropdown list:

3. Click on Search at the top ot bottom of the  screen.