About Searching Manuscript Collections

The Library of Congress provides a Web interface for searching archival and manuscript cataloging in OCLC WorldCat. This service is provided free-of-charge. NUCMC staff can assist you with problems you might be having searching WorldCat, but we cannot perform searches for you.

The Library of Congress only provides search access to the following materials in OCLC WorldCat: archival and manuscript collections; mixed materials (i.e., collections that contain two or more different types of bibliographic materials); and bibliographic materials that have been described using archival descriptive rules. The Library does not provide "free" access to search books or other types of materials in WorldCat.

Definitions used in seaching the databases

OCLC
A nonprofit membership organization serving 41,000 libraries in 82 countries and territories around the world.
Z39.50
An information retrieval protocol that supports communication among different information systems. The maintenance agency for the protocol is the Library of Congress. From the NUCMC web site, it offers you seamless searching of OCLC WorldCat.
Gateway
The gateway to OCLC WorldCat using Z39.50 is an easy access method which avoids having to use OCLC's searching forms and methods.
Left-anchored search
The search must begin with the first significant word in a name, title, or subject field, and continue with the search in exact order, as opposed to "word list" search where the words can be in any order.