[674] in ad-lib
Report from the front
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ninadm@MIT.EDU)
Wed May 24 11:54:05 1995
From: ninadm@MIT.EDU
To: opac-lib@MIT.EDU, perkins@MIT.EDU, ginnys@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 24 May 1995 11:53:34 EDT
I don't want to make everyone jealous, but I'm sitting in the Hayden
basement training rooom right now, having a grand time working with
Ginny on the Reserve/OPAC interface. Here's something a little, er,
unexpected we just found.
The reserve course number search has some odd features. I suspect
these are not bugs, but rather further examples of Geac's way of
indexing numbers. (We all carried on about this when we brought up
the 8000.) But, I think those of us who plan to use this system
should be aware of this.
For example: if you search rk=4.00, you get this: 1. 21L019
2. 21L020
3. 21L463/F94
4. 21M.291
5. 21M600/F94
6. 21W757/F94
4.00
7. 03.01/S95
8. 03.03/S95
9. 03.21
10. 03.34/S95
11. 05.05/S95
12. 05.32/S95
13. 05.60/S95
If I search rk=04.00, I get this:
COURSE
1. 21M600/F94
2. 21W757/F94
3. 03.01/S95
4. 03.03/S95
5. 03.21
6. 03.34/S95
04.00
7. 05.05/S95
8. 05.32/S95
9. 05.60/S95
10. 05.62/S95
11. 05.63
12. 05.68/S95
13. 05.72/S95
If I search rk=04.000, though, I find this:
COURSE
1. 20.01/3
2. 22.38
3. 32.09
4. 03.063/S95
5. 03.069/S95
6. 03.155JS95
04.000
7. 04203 S95
8. 04.222
9. 04.298 F94
10. 04.333
11. 04.442 F94
12. 04.605 S94
13. 04.639 F94
Bingo! Now I see the reserve listings for Course 4.
Now, you may ask, how about truncation? rk=04.* yields this:
COURSE
04.*
1. 15.FET S95
2. 20A109
3. 21F225/I95
4. 21F301/I95
5. 21F311 (SEE 17.111/21F311)
6. 21F401/I95
7. 21F449/I95
8. 21F701/I95
9. 21F714/S95
10. 21H311/F94
11. 21H993 S95
12. 21L019
13. 21L020
rk=04.0* yields
COURSE
1. 21L019
2. 21L020
3. 21L463/F94
4. 21M.291
5. 21M600/F94
6. 21W757/F94
04.0*
7. 03.01/S95
8. 03.03/S95
9. 03.21
10. 03.34/S95
11. 05.05/S95
12. 05.32/S95
On the other hand, rk=21.* works fine because of the alpha character
in Course 21 class numbers:
Browsing COURSE NAME: RK=21.*
COURSE
1. 15.FET S95
2. 20A109
21.*
3. 21F225/I95
4. 21F301/I95
5. 21F311 (SEE 17.111/21F311)
6. 21F401/I95
7. 21F449/I95
8. 21F701/I95
9. 21F714/S95
10. 21H311/F94
11. 21H993 S95
12. 21L019
13. 21L020
Probably Anita, or Ginny, or someone who understands more about
reserves than I do can shed more light on this. But right now, I
remain slightly mystified about this index, and we may want to bear
this feature in mind as we prepare to work with users.
Nina
