WorldCat® Knowledge Base
Release Notes for 2013-12-28
Contents
New Features .......................................................................................................................................... 2
Added a Collection Level History ...................................................................................................... 2
Hide the Left Sidebar in the WorldShare Interface ........................................................................... 2
Enhancements......................................................................................................................................... 3
Allow Coverage Dates from 1450 Forward ....................................................................................... 3
OCLC Number Lookup / Autofill KBART Upload Can Include Other Information ................................ 3
Edit Fields of Title Level Records when Entire Collection is Selected in WorldShare Interface ........... 4
WorldShare Interfaces Updates ....................................................................................................... 4
Settings Page Changes ..................................................................................................................... 4
Collection Browse / Search Results Changes .................................................................................... 5
Title Browse / Search Results Changes ............................................................................................. 6
Collection Details Changes ............................................................................................................... 7
Title Details Page Changes ............................................................................................................... 8
Bug Fixes ................................................................................................................................................. 9
Google Scholar Settings Missing Name and IP Range Dependency in WorldShare Interface ............. 9
Collection Sharing Pagination Broken in WorldShare Interface ......................................................... 9
Known Issues........................................................................................................................................... 9
ILL Requirements Dropdown Missing Label in the WorldShare Interface .......................................... 9
Mark Collection as Database-only Showing When Collection Has Titles in the WorldShare Interface 9
Collection Details Page Doesn’t Open Titles Accordion After Save .................................................... 9
Location Note Field Should Be in Collapsible Notes Section in WorldShare Interface ...................... 10
New Features
Added a Collection Level History
Since it can be overwhelming to sort through the Activity History for changes to a specific collection, we
have added a collection level history for each collection. In the WorldShare® interface, you will find the
collection level history at the bottom of the collection details page just below the titles accordion.
In the Service Configuration interface, you will find the collection level history as a tab just to the right of
the Share tab.
The collection level history collects Activity History events for individual collections for easier access and
use. The event tasks will also still be available in the library level Activity History.
Hide the Left Sidebar in the WorldShare Interface
When browsing collection or title search results, we understand that there is a lot of information in a
small space. To help give you more space, we now have a feature that lets you collapse and expand the
2
left sidebar. You will find the collapse / expand toggle at the top left in the menu bar just below the
OCLC WorldShare logo.
Enhancements
Allow Coverage Dates from 1450 Forward
We previously did not allow dates prior to 1800 in coverage information. This provided some simple
validation to ensure that the value in the field was a sensible date. We initially set the low value to
1800, which made sense for most electronic resources, but did not account for older, digitized content,
nor for some print records. We have expanded the lower date to 1450 (the accepted date of the
invention of the Gutenberg printing press) to allow older dates to be represented as well. This should
aid in the discovery and maintenance of historical collections such as EEBO and Hathitrust.
OCLC Number Lookup / Autofill KBART Upload Can Include Other
Information
In the February 2013 release, we added the OCLC number lookup / autofill feature that allows users to
populate title information in the WorldCat knowledge base user interfaces and via the KBART upload
using a single, or list of, OCLC number(s) to pull title information from WorldCat into the knowledge
base. The original feature allowed the user simply to populate the oclc_number field, set the ACTION
value to “autofill,” and then upload the KBART file. If a user had entered any other information in any of
the other columns of the spreadsheet, the system disregarded the information. We have made an
improvement to this feature to accept information in any of the other columns with the “autofill”
action. This will save users time and effort when they want to include things like title URLs with the
OCLC number lookup.
3
Edit Fields of Title Level Records when Entire Collection is Selected in
WorldShare Interface
WorldShare interface users can now edit fields of a title level record even when they have selected the
entire collection. This allows them to add notes and other relevant information to any selected title in a
customizable collection. It is also possible to edit titles in fully selected collections via the KBART upload.
This functionality has been available in the Service Configuration interface since February.
WorldShare Interfaces Updates
As we noted in the August 2013 release notes, the WorldCat knowledge base currently supports two
user interfaces: Service Configuration and WorldShare. Since supporting multiple interfaces requires
more resources and effort, we will eventually encourage everyone to adopt the WorldShare interface so
that we can focus all of our development efforts in one place and bring users more and better features
more quickly.
If you currently use the Service Configuration interface to manage your knowledge base holdings, you
may get access to the WorldShare interface at any time by simply filling out the WorldCat knowledge
base request form again.
In the first part of 2014, we will enable the new WorldShare interface for all libraries and share access
details with any library still using the Service Configuration interface. We hope to complete transitioning
everyone to the WorldShare interface by summer.
Over the past several months, the knowledge base team has been working hard to improve the
WorldShare interface so that we can start encouraging users to migrate to the WorldShare interface.
We are happy to share some of these improvements with you now.
Settings Page Changes
In the Settings tab on the left sidebar, we have improved the Provider-Specific settings and Provider
Result Sorting accordions. Currently, both Service Configuration and the WorldShare interfaces display
all the Provider-Specific settings available whether or not a library has configured a value for it. We
have improved this in the WorldShare interface so that only Provider-Specific settings for which the
library has entered a value will display in the list making it less overwhelming and more navigable as this
list continues to expand. New Provider-Specific settings can be added from the drop-down list at the
top of the accordion.
4
For the Provider Result Sorting accordion, we have improved the look of the table as well as added
numbering and a clearly labeled “Move to Top” action on the right. Users can still drag and drop
providers to sort them, but the “Move to Top” action replaces the current double click to move to top
action.
Collection Browse / Search Results Changes
We recognize that there is quite a lot of information presented on the collection browse / search results
pages; therefore, we wanted to improve the look and organization of this information to make it as
useable and navigable as possible. Toward that end, we have pulled the provider information into its
own column. We also moved some of the icons out of the “In My Holdings” column and into places
where the information made more sense. We relocated the customizable pencil icon
to the
collection column next to the word customizable. The shared icon
moved to its own column.
5
We also took this opportunity to improve the look and organization of the collection filters by moving
them to a left alignment.
Title Browse / Search Results Changes
Much like with the collection browse / search results page, the title browse / search results page
presents quite a lot of information. Again, we wanted to improve the look and organization of this
information to make it more useable and navigable. We also wanted to align the looks of the collection
and title browse / search pages. To that end, we moved collection information into its own column and
added collection type information (customizable, open access, discontinued, etc.) below it to mimic the
collection browse / search results look. We also changed the “In My Holdings” column to have the same
look as the collection details page.
We also took this opportunity to improve the title filter, which we also use on the collection details page
in combination with the “Search within” feature. Our initial implementation of the filter mixed format
and coverage filters under the label “content.” This caused some confusion, so we have revised and
reorganized the filters into three categories: Titles, Format, and Journal Coverage.
6
Collection Details Changes
The collection details screen is used for both creating a collection and for reviewing and changing
collection properties and titles information. When we did usability testing with users, we discovered
that most people interacted with a very small number of the available fields when creating and
maintaining collections. This gave us an opportunity to clean up and reorganize the information a bit.
The page is now organized into several accordions and makes use of collapsible notes fields.
The most used settings are in the Properties accordion and include things like collection name,
collection ID, and provider. We then tried to group lesser-used fields by like topics. The Linking
accordion has collection URL, Link Scheme, Proxy, and other linking related fields. The Holdings and
MARC Records accordion contains all the collection level fields for which there is a corresponding library
level setting in the Library Holdings tab of left sidebar; these are settings which generally require the
library level setting to be enabled for the collection level setting to work, for example: Enable MARC
Record Delivery and Export to Google Scholar. The Sharing and Titles accordions are exactly as they
have always been and the History accordion is new (see New Features above).
7
Title Details Page Changes
As with the collection details page, we relied on user feedback to determine the most used fields and to
reorganize the page, locating more used fields at the top and trying to group like fields together.
Perhaps the most significant change on the title details page is that it is no longer a pop-up style overlay,
but is a page of its own. We also made the notes fields collapsible to save page space and added
information icons with hint text next to the right of fields with restrictions.
8
Bug Fixes
Google Scholar Settings Missing Name and IP Range Dependency in
WorldShare Interface
As reported in the August 2013 release notes, we had a bug with the Google Scholar settings in the
WorldShare Interface. In the Library Holdings tab, under the Google Scholar accordion, the Library
Name was missing. Likewise, the IP ranges fields were dependent on the IP Required setting when they
should not have been. Both have been fixed and are functioning properly.
Collection Sharing Pagination Broken in WorldShare Interface
As reported in the August 2013 release notes, we had a reported bug with the collection level sharing
where if a collection was shared to more than ten others, users were not be able to navigate beyond the
first ten and thus were not able to see all the libraries they had shared to. Upon investigation, we
discovered that the bug was actually the pagination itself. We have fixed this by removing pagination
from the collection level sharing feature so that it now matches the library level sharing feature.
Known Issues
ILL Requirements Dropdown Missing Label in the WorldShare Interface
In the WorldShare interface, libraries that do not have a subscription to WorldShare License Manager
will see an ILL section in the Holdings and MARC Records accordion of the collection details page. We
are currently missing the label for the dropdown menu to set ILL requirements. This will be remedied in
the next release.
Mark Collection as Database-only Showing When Collection Has Titles in
the WorldShare Interface
In the WorldShare interface, the “Mark collection as database-only (no titles)” button on the collection
details page is currently shown even when a collection has titles. This will be fixed in the next release.
Collection Details Page Doesn’t Open Titles Accordion After Save
In the WorldShare interface, after creating a new collection, the titles accordion does not automatically
open. This will be fixed in the next release.
9
Location Note Field Should Be in Collapsible Notes Section in WorldShare
Interface
In the WorldShare interface, the “Location” field should be with the other Notes fields in the collapsible
notes section of the title details page. This will be remedied in the next release.
©2013 OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. All rights reserved. The following OCLC product and service names are trademarks or service
marks of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.: FirstSearch, OCLC, WorldCat, WorldCat knowledge base, WorldCat Local, WorldShare,
WorldShare Interlibrary Loan, WorldShare License Manager, WorldShare Management Services, WorldShare Metadata, WorldShare Metadata
API, WorldShare Metadata Collection Manager, WorldShare Metadata Record Manager, WorldShare Platform and “The world’s libraries.
Connected.” The OCLC, WorldCat and WorldShare symbols are service marks of OCLC. Third-party product service names are trademarks or
service marks of their respective companies. OCLC grants permission to photocopy this publication as needed.
1312, OCLC
10