Skip to Main Content

Discovery Tools @ UMD

News, tutorials, and tips for using discovery tools at UMD.

Bug Affecting Branch Library Facets in WorldCat UMD

Our vendor's system has a bug affecting some of the library facet options in WorldCat UMD where materials held by a branch library are not returned when a user applies that facet. Currently, the Architecture Library and the Maryland Room Collections facets are the only 2 known to be affect by this bug.

 

All of the libraries' holdings are still discoverable using the higher-level facets, so if you encounter this problem, you can select a facet like University of Maryland, College Park or Libraries Worldwide.

 

Known item searching bug--Resolved with January Update

Update

The known-issue described below was resolved by the vendor in an update in January 2019.


 There is a bug affecting some known-item searching in WorldCat UMD. When a search returns 1 or 2 records, the system may experience an error when trying to access a record from the editions & formats section or may not see links to e-resources listed as owned by the library.  Our vendor is aware of the issue and is working to resolve the issue. Below you will find examples of the errors and workarounds.


Error: E-resource is listed as available but a link isn't provided


Example of bug not providing a link

I have performed a simple search using only the ISSN, 2542-4351, as my search term. The search returns one e-journal and a few hundred articles, but a link isn't provided to access the e-resource.

 

Workaround: Use the permalink to reload the record

Permalink example


After clicking in to view the item, you can click on the link button, as pictured above, in the top right-hand corner of the record. A window will then open with a permalink to that record. If you copy that link and paste it into your browsers's address bar, the record should reload and display the link.

 

 

Error: Can't access an item from editions & formats section of a record

ISBN error example

I have performed an ISBN search which returned only 1 item, an ebook. I found a print edition under the editions & formats tab, but when I try to access the record for the book, I get the following error:

This search record cannot be retrieved at this time error example

Workaround: edit the URL, changing "detailed-record" to "oclc"

If you encounter this error, go to your browser's address bar. The URL should look something like this: https://umaryland.on.worldcat.org/detailed-record/179801079?databaseList=638. If you replace "detailed-record" with "oclc" and then hit enter, the item record should now properl display.