Cataloging Procedures Manual

Searching Tips Z39.50 (SmartPort)

Instructions for formulating searches via Z39.50 server:

• The available databases described below via SmartPort are 1) bibliographic databases: LC, LCBIB, OCLC and RLIN; 2) authority database: LCAUTH.

  
  

  Name	Location	Database
  LC	Library of Congress	BOOK list
  *Search fields: ISBN AUTHOR TITLE CORPORATE LCCN ISSN
  LCAUTH	Library of Congress	Authority list
  *Search fields: Personal name Corporate name Title LCCN
  LCBIB	Library of Congress	All BIB files, all formats
  *Search fields: ISBN AUTHOR TITLE CORPORATE LCCN ISSN
  OCLC	OCLC/WorldCat via SmartPort	All formats
  *Search fields: DOC-ID BIB-ID TITLE AUTHOR FORMAT YEAR PUBLISHER
  RLIN	RLG/Zephyr	All formats
  *Search fields: DOC-ID BIB-ID TITLE AUTHOR FORMAT YEAR PUBLISHER (not available)

• Search Term Processing for Z39.50 (cf. Library of Congress' Tips for Advanced Searching and OCLC's Searching Tips)

  **Note: When a search fails, which has boolean operators or common stop words, enclose the search term in single or double quotes. (See Sec. VI. 4)**

    Z39.50 is an American national and quickly being adopted as an international standard for information retrieval. It is an open standard which enables communication between systems that run on different hardware and use different software. Z39.50 allows the user to access remote database records without knowing the search syntax that is used by those other systems, by specifying criteria to identify appropriate records, and then requesting the transmission of some or all of the identified records.

    The information in the following tables is provided at the courtesy of Stanford University's SmartPort guidelines (rev. 12/15/97)

  General	Library of Congress	OCLC/WorldCat	RLG/Zephyr
  Scope	all bib formats; separate destinations	all bib formats; records loaded overnight from OLUC	all bib formats; records created online indexed the next day
  Access/ Timeout	200 logins; timeout=20 min.	limited logins; timeout=30 min.	40 logins; timeout=30 min.

  
  
  

  I. Word/phrase searches (keyword based):

    Z39.50 (version 3) allows searching on multiple databases (e.g. searching simultaneously on OCLC and RLIN). It supports word and phrase searches. **Note: In SmartPort, to change search type/mode, click on Preference--Search mode--Search type. The Word search provides more flexbility than Phrase search.

  Features	Library of Congress	OCLC/WorldCat	RLG/Zephyr
  Word search	all words in any order must appear in same field unless more than 1 search term is used	words need not be in same field	works like word search in RLIN; words need not be in same field
  Phrase search	need not begin field, but must appear in order input	beginning of field; truncate if incomplete	beginning of field; truncate if incomplete

    Keyword search terms can appear anywhere in the field. If multiple words appear in the same search term, all words must appear in the same field in the record. If the words appear in separate operands (ANDed together) they can appear in different fields in the same record.

    Personal name keywords: a keyword search term can be the first or last name (without comma). If more than one name appears in the search term of a keyword search, the order should not matter. However, when problem occurs, put the search term in quotes and in inverted form.

  II. Number searches (DOC-ID: LCCN, ISBN, ISSN, etc. and BIB-ID for bibliographic number in 001 field):

  In most cases, hyphens are optional.

  DOC-ID BIB-ID	Library of Congress	OCLC/WorldCat	RLG/Zephyr
  LCCN (DOC-ID)	hyphen optional	hyphen optional; SN search	hyphen optional
  ISBN (DOC-ID)	hyphens optional	no hyphens	no hyphens
  ISSN (DOC-ID)	hyphen optional	use hyphen	use hyphen
  Bib# (BIB-ID)	use LCCN	enter as OCLC 8 digits: (i.e. OCLC 12345678) 12345678	include LI and format code: csugabc1234-b
  Music Pub.# (DOC-ID)	N/A	enter as found on piece including special characters, e.g. / (slash), - (hyphen) or space, etc.: cpo 999125-2	Enter as found on piece; inclusion of non-alphanumeric characters not necessary for successful search, e.g. / (slash), - (hyphen) can be omitted: cd 80210 or cd-80210

  
  
  

  III. Wild Card/Truncation:

  LC does NOT support any "wild card" or truncation character, OCLC and RLIN do but use different sets of expressions.

  Feature	Library of Congress	OCLC/WorldCat	RLG/Zephyr
  Truncation	not supported	use *	use # in either word or phrase search

  
  

  IV. Format:

  Feature	Library of Congress	OCLC/WorldCat	RLG/Zephyr
  Format	not supported; LC files are separate destinations by format	*books=bks, *serials=ser, *music=rec or sco, *computer files=mrf, *maps=map, *vim=med, *mss=mss	*books=am, *serials=as, *music=cm, jm or im, *computer files=mm or ms, *maps=em, *vim=gm, km, om, rm

  
  

  V. Sort Order:

  Feature	Library of Congress	OCLC/WorldCat	RLG/Zephyr
  Sort order	chronological by LCCN	most recent first	most recent first

  
  

  VI. Helpful Hints:

  1.    Do not include an apostrophe in a search term.

  Example: title = prizzi's honor (instead use: prizzis honor )

  2.    Do not use common words in search terms (e.g., "united", "history", "dept", "john") and single letters or numbers.

  3.    It is possible to pass proximity operators in the search term, when using labeled search fields (not when using icon search).

  LC proximity operators include:

  before (or "bef")
  near
  adjacent (or "adj") (Note: for proximity operators to be processed correctly, do not specify the "phrase" Structure attribute -- select either "word" or "word list".)

  Example: title = special before weapons

  AND (operator)

  title = teams adj tactics

  Proximity modifiers can be used in combination with numbers to place a maximum distance between one word, word list, or phrase and another. The number is input after the modifier enclosed in parentheses.

  Example: title = group before (1) insurance

  (Note: the maximum distance which can be specifed between words, word lists, or phrases is 255 words. ADJACENT without a number is interpreted by the system as if the modifier 0 had been given. BEFORE without a number is interpreted as if the modifier 255 had been given.

  4.    Words and abbreviations which serve a special function in searches are called reserved words (e.g. stop words and Boolean operators). Reserved words have a special meaning for the online system. They can be used as search terms in searches only when enclosed in quotation marks (single or double).
  
  

  Reserved/stop words include:

  Feature	LC**	OCLC/ WorldCat	RLG/ Zephyr
  Stop words	articles, prepositions and conjunctions in major languages; reserved words can be used if enclosed in quotes: and, or, not, adj, adjacent, bef, before, near, personal, corporate, title, subject, series, note, p, c, t, s, se, n, with. Avoid common words.	a, and, are, as, at, be, but, by, for, from, had, have, he. her, his, in, is, it, not, of, on, or, that, the, this, to, was, which, with, you	can be used if enclosed in quotes: all 1 and 2 letter words, about, and, are, aus, aux, avec, con, dal, das, del, dem, der, des, for, from, gli, into, les, mit, nach, the, und, von, with, zum, zur. Apply to both word and phrase search.

  ** any word beginning with these letters is treated as a reserved word and must be enclosed in quotations marks.

  Example: title (phrase) = tax "adjustment"

  Example: title (phrase) = 'near' east

  
  

  Created 12/15/97 (Last modified: Monday, 02-Jun-2008 14:55:32 EDT js)
  SmartPort Trio:
  Alice Henley: Email: awh@virginia.edu   Phone: 804.924.1430
  Jackie Shieh: Email: shieh@virginia.edu   Phone: 804.924.3206
  Bud Woodward: Email: bsw3d@virginia.edu   Phone: 804.243.8865
  
  
  Cataloging Services Dept./ Alderman Library /
  University of Virginia / Charlottesville, Virginia / 22903