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Moving Citations from FirstSearch/WorldCat Databases into RefWorks

List of FirstSearch Databases

In a FirstSearch/WorldCat Database

  1. Click in the box to the left of desired records
  2. Click on Export at the top left of the screen.
  3. At Export: click in the circle to the left of Marked records from this search.
  4. At Export To:click in the radio button to the left of RefWorks.
  5. Click on Export.

In RefWorks

  1. Login to your RefWorks database if you have not already done so.
  2. Your citation(s) will automatically be imported into the Last Imported Folder.

    You may now view your records and move them to the folder of your choice.

Transferring non-Western characters

Some records in WorldCat include non-Western characters in bibiliographic displays. Non-Western character sets include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic vernacular.

To have non-Western characters display properly in your RefWorks database, it is necessary to import a saved set of records (export to a text file) rather than import records directly to RefWorks (export directly to RefWorks).


In WorldCat

  1. Click on Show vernacular next to Document field in a record to view search results with non-Western characters included.
  2. Click in the box to the left of desired records.
  3. Click on Export at the top left of the screen.
  4. At Export: click in the circle to the left of Marked records from this search.
  5. At Export To:click in the circle to the left of Text file.
  6. Click on Export.
  7. Click on Save.
  8. Give the file a name and clickon Save to save the file to your computer.
  9. Click on Close.

In RefWorks

  1. Login to your RefWorks database if you have not already done so.
  2. Click on Import at the top of the screen.
  3. Select OCLC FirstSearch from the Import Filter/Data Source drop-down menu.
  4. Select WorldCat from the Database drop-down menu.
  5. At the Import Data from the following Text File box click on Browse to select the file name of your saved records.
  6. Select UTF-8 from the Encoding drop-down menu.
  7. Click on Import.

Please send comments or questions to askrefworks@library.wisc.edu

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