[303] in ad-lib
Rotch testers issues/problems
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sbyrd@MIT.EDU)
Fri Apr 7 16:53:32 1995
From: sbyrd@MIT.EDU
To: opac-lib@MIT.EDU, ad-cat@MIT.EDU
Cc: gyoung@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 07 Apr 1995 16:52:54 EDT
Since Grant so kindly deferred to me on a few of the points raised by
pat and the Rotch testers, I thought I'd try to respond.....we can
also talk about this staff at Monday's Opac meeting.
>Searching issues.
>
> 1-We are wondering when we will be able to search for series
> numbers. Will this not be until the 2nd migration?
This question has a tip-of-the-iceberg-type answer. The Cataloging
group is currently negotiating with Geac about how to index series
numbers in Advance in a meaningful, correct, and efficient way. I
hope we can resolve it before the second GMA.
Until then, you _can_ search by series numbers currently; it's just
clunky, misleading, and unacceptable. Here's how:
1. First, search by series title alone. Don't include the individual
series numbers.
2. Modify search.
3. Change limits, using "Series volume." Put your individual series
number here.
4. Hit "proceed." Then choose the hits you want the changed limits
to apply to (the way you do with any "modify search").
The main problem with this is that Advance retrieves the series number
in a very funky way, i.e., you get all series volumes with any
occurence of the numeral you've searched for, regardless of its
position in the numbering. For instance, if you search for vol. 3 of
a series, you'll get the record for vol. 3. You'll also, however, get
the records for vols. 33, 543, 238, and 13. [Don't bother reporting
this as a bug, by the way--Geac has already told us this can't be fixed.]
Anyway, as Nancy R. once said, "We're working on it."
> 3-how will call number SUFFIXES be searchable? RVC's video-
> cassettes have videocassette as a suffix, where Music has it
> as a prefix. Will either work as an opac parameter qualifier?
I don't think we'll be able to strip the call number suffixes in the
2nd GMA. But, to really answer the main question here, basically call
number suffixes should NOT be depended on as a qualifier. Any search
including the call number suffix term will result in an incomplete
search, since they have been inconsistently applied in our database.
(They are only generated for the call numbers of records whose
holdings were created using input stamps. Not all records have been
created this way.)
When the call number prefix issue is resolved, this whole thing will
be a lot clearer. I think the group working on this is in the process
of finishing up. Anyway, the idea is that the kind of information
that appears in some call number suffixes, like format information
such as video or cd-rom, or type of material information not from the
call number suffix like theses, will be searchable and qualifiable through use
of a call number prefix, which will come from a table currently being
designed by the Holdings Table Task force, the group that's designing
it.
>Display issues.
>2-why do the terms "title" or "series" show up in the title summary
list?
I know this is ugly and misleading. The Ad-cat group is currently
investigating whether we can strip this altogether from the
one-line-per-record retrieval display screen (or, at the very least,
from the opac screens; that information can be helpful to
catalogers--but only if it's correct, and that brings up another
problem the group is thinking about in its spare time).
Chewing daily,
Sam
