Nelson Library

Created Sep 18, 2023

How to find an OCLC number in First Search

FirstSearch

6 Steps

Click on Advanced Search

Uncheck "Items in my library"

Check "Books"

For videos, check "Visual Materials"

Change the first search box to "Author" and enter the author's last name only

We want to balance broad and specific searching right now, so we will list only the first name

Change the second search box to "Title" and enter the title

Omit beginning articles (like "a", "an", or "the")

Click on "Search" or press "Enter"

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Already Owned

1 Step

Set it aside for later

Sometimes you will find items that have a green line that says "Southwestern Assemblies of God University". This means we (should) already have a record for this item in Accessit. Set this item aside in a stack for adding to Accessit as a duplicate copy.

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Easily Found

5 Steps

Hopefully, most items you search for will be easily found. Here is an example of how you know you found the right item.

Click on the first record that looks like a match

The item in my hand is "Born after midnight" by A. W. Tozer, so the first search result looks like a good candidate.

Verify the publisher

These match the publisher on my book

Verify the year

The year matches

Verify the number of pages

The page numbers match

Write the OCLC number on a sticky note on the book

You will use this later in Accessit

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Not Initially Found

7 Steps

What to do if your initial search is empty or does not contain your item

"No records matched your search"

Sometimes your searches don't find anything. That's okay: We'll search a different way.

Click on the "Searching" tab

Erase the title line

Enter the author's full name and press "Enter"/click "Search"

Always enter the names as Last, First. Don't include middle names or suffixes for now.

Go through the search results like in steps 8-12

If you still don't find it, try one or two other types of searches

After a reasonable number of searches without finding it, jump to the "Not Found at All" section

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Partially Found

4 Steps

Sometimes when you redo your search, you find a record that almost matches your book. Here are the pieces of information most important to determining if the record matches the book in your hand.

Click on the near match

The book in my hand is titled "Dangerous Men: Beginning the Process of Lust Free Living" and is by the same author. It is possible that the title is printed oddly on the book in my hands, so I'll check some more details to see if they match.

Check how many pages the record and book show

The book in my hand had 129. This is not looking like a match, but I'll check a few more things just to verify.

Verify the publication year

My book is the third edition and was published in 2005. It looks like this record is for the first edition. The book slightly changed it's name between editions.

Rejection

This is not the right record, even though it's close. Skip to the "Not Found at All" section to finish this book.

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Not Found at All

2 Steps

Sometimes there genuinely is no existing record for an item

Write "OCLC original" on the sticky note and set in its own pile

This book will need to be original cataloged either by the technical services librarian or someone trained in using the cataloging Google Form.

Well done!

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