Melvyl’s long-awaited switch to WorldCat Discovery, the Online Computer Library Center’s (OCLC) newer discovery user interface, launched on Monday, June 17, 2019.

Melvyl is the discovery platform for the University of California libraries.

As the world's largest library catalog, WorldCat helps users find items in libraries close to them and makes the UCR Library’s resources more visible to people on the Web.

What does it mean to faculty, students and staff to make the switch?

Library users will see a new interface. WorldCat Discovery has made many improvements in the user experience, including:

• newer technology infrastructure, which supports ongoing expansion and increased operability with other services
• interface automatically adapts to user devices, including smartphones, notebooks, laptops and desktop computers, to give people the same experience regardless of device. A new search algorithm delivers more relevant search results than the previous interfaces
• Library staff can better support interlibrary loan, reference and collection development

Technically, what does it mean to make the switch?

Basically, it’s changing URLs. Users  who have Melvyl URLs listed on a department or course website or course management system will need to update their links or bookmarks.

The updated link for UC Riverside users is: https://ucr.on.worldcat.org/discovery

How to switch to WorldCat Discovery

Change your bookmark or website linked URLs that point to WorldCat Local to point to WorldCat Discovery anytime before August 9, 2019.

In the meantime, try WorldCat Discovery and report any problems directly to CDL at melvylops@cdlib.org.

What happens to personal lists on WorldCat Local?

Although it is not possible for personal lists attached to WorldCat Local accounts to be automatically ported into WorldCat Discovery, users can easily import lists from either WorldCat Local (or WorldCat.org) accounts to their WorldCat Discovery accounts using OCLC’s instructions here.

Looking ahead

CDL will continue to publish updates in CDLInfo News: Melvyl. Feel free to email the CDL Melvyl Operations Team if you have any questions.

For the latest information, see the CDL WorldCat Discovery Beta website.