Search OCLC Connexion when a record is not available in Alma NZ & IZ. Connexion is the cataloger's view of WorldCat, a database of over 300 million records from 72,000 libraries worldwide.

Basic searching

The following is a basic introduction to searching Connexion for known items. For additional searching guidelines, see OCLC's Searching WorldCat Quick Reference.

To open the search box in Connexion, click the magnifying glass on the left end of the toolbar:

This will open an advanced search box that allows you to combine various search fields using AND, OR, and NOT operators. You can form a complex search with multiple fields, or you can start with a Standard Number search (e.g., ISBN, ISSN, etc.). (Tip: Expand the search field options by clicking the + sign above the menu box.)

You can also choose to apply search limits, such as limiting the language, format, and year of the material as appropriate to the piece in hand.

A note on language

The "Language" limit applies to the language of the piece itself, while the "Apply Language of Cataloging Limiter" applies to the language of the record (also found in field 040 ‡b), and we always want to use records that have English (eng) as the cataloging language.

This means that if you are cataloging a title that is in German, you can select German from the "Language" list, but the "Language of Cataloging Limiter" would still be English.

If there is no OCLC record with 040 ‡b eng or blank, original cataloging is required.

Results lists

If you search by Standard Number (ISBN, ISSN, etc.) or another method that returns only one result, the corresponding record will immediately open.

If your search returns multiple results, you will see different lists depending on the number of returns:

• If your search returns over 100 results, a list divided by year and format will appear. From this list you can either select the appropriate format and date range to browse, or you can perform a more narrow search to further limit your results.
  
• If your search returns less than 100 results, a list of titles will be presented. There are 2 different views of this list, which can be toggled using the View > List Type menu.
  1. Truncated - lists fields separately, allows sorting of list by title, author, publisher, date, etc.
     
  2. Brief - shows more information from the record, but in a single field and so cannot be sorted.
     

Open any record by double-clicking in the field. Once a record is open, you can also navigate through records in the results list using the  buttons on the Connexion toolbar. 

For what to look for when matching the piece in hand to an OCLC record, see the OCLC Record Match page.

Once you've found a matching record in Connexion, follow the instructions for exporting from Connexion to get the record into Alma.