Searching Tips Z39.50 Hand Press BOok

Searching Tips for OCLC Z39.50 Heritage of the Printed Book Database
(formerly Hand Press Book database)

Introduction

This document provides information about searching for library staff who help plan the configuration of the library's Z39.50 client. It also helps those who train or supervise staff who will use the OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging service's Heritage of the Printed Book (OCLCHPB) database.

For OCLC Z39.50 HeritagePrintedBook, searching methods are determined by the capabilities of the OCLC server and by the implementation of the capabilities in your library's local system client. For example, the server makes several indexes available for searching. The library decides which indexes its client will support and how staff will use them.

The Z39.50 Configuration Guide for OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging also contains information about the server's searching capabilities.

For information describing MARC record structure, character sets, and exchange media formatting, see OCLC-MARC Records at:  http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcat/records/subscription/.

General Search Tips

Databases available

In addition to OCLCHPB, you can use the OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging service to search these OCLC databases:

Depending upon your client, separate sessions may be required for each database.

For information on searching WorldCat, see Searching Tips for OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging.

Word and phrase indexes

Indexes in OCLC Z39.50 HeritagePrintedBook are word or phrase indexes. The following examples highlight the differences between them.

Phrase search

For a phrase search you enter the exact phrase. Omit initial articles. You can use right truncation if you know only a part of the phrase.

• Catholic church.  If you search for the Catholic church as a corporate name using a phrase search, entering catholic church retrieves records that contain the exact text catholic church (15 characters) in a searchable field/subfield.

• Novum missale romanum.  If you search for this type of prayer book as a title using a phrase search, entering Novum missale romanum retrieves records for the exact title Novum missale romanum (21 characters) in a searchable field/subfield.

Word search

For a word search you enter one or more words from the title. Omit articles and prepositions.

• Catholic church.  If you search for the Catholic church as a corporate name using a word search, entering catholic church retrieves records that contain both catholic and church somewhere within all the searchable fields/subfields.

• Missale. If you search for this type of prayer book as a title using a word search, entering missale retrieves records that contain the word missale anywhere within the title, including: Missale; Missale, hoc est Cantica...; and Missale: Canon Missae.

Index browsing

The OCLC server supports the Z39.50 Scan Service capability. If your client supports that capability, you can browse indexes to view a list of the words or phrases included. When you want to use a phrase index, OCLC recommends browsing it first to verify the phrase before searching.

Stopwords

In word indexes. Stopwords (listed below) are words that are not included in word indexes because they occur frequently and do not add to the content of the indexes. Exclude stopwords from searches in word indexes. If you include a stopword in a word index search, the server returns an error message.

In phrase indexes. Include stopwords in searches of phrase indexes. However, exclude a, an, or the when it is the first word of a title.

Punctuation and symbols

Include the following letters, digits, punctuation marks, and symbols in searches:

• Letters, a-z
• Digits, 0-9
• - (hyphen) within words
• & (ampersand) within words

You do not need to capitalize names or other proper nouns in searches. All letters are treated as lowercase whether you enter them as lowercase or uppercase.

Exclude hyphens when they are preceded and followed by blank spaces. Include them within words, such as high-energy. Search for hyphenated words in various ways. For example: post operative, post-operative, postoperative.

When an ampersand (&) is preceded and followed by blank spaces, exclude it in word indexes but include it in phrase indexes. Include ampersands within words in word or phrase indexes. For example, enter at&t.

Substitute a space for a / (slash). For example, enter men women instead of men/women.

You may search with or without diacritics. For example, enter André Gide or Andre Gide.

Exclude other punctuation marks and symbols. Do not substitute a space for them. For example, to search for O'Hara, enter ohara.

MARC Fields and Subfields Indexed

Heritage of the Printed Book

This table lists indexes that are specific to the Heritage of the Printed Book database. Information for each of these indexes is given below.

WorldCat

A number of WorldCat indexes are also valid for searching the Heritage of the Printed Book database. These indexes are listed here and linked to their description in Searching Tips for OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging.

Introduction

For each index, the table below lists the combinations of Use and Structure attributes used to access the index through the OCLC Z39.50 server. The table also lists the MARC fields and subfields covered by the index. Where “word” is valid as a structure attribute, "word list" is valid as well.

OCLC provides a Test Server to assist users and system vendors with Z39.50 client configuration.

Z39.50 Attribute Map for OCLC Z39.50 Heritage of the Printed Book Indexing

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Non-Latin Scripts

Z39.50 Cataloging supports non-Latin scripts using either the MARC-8 or the Unicode UTF-8 character sets (see MARC-8 Note).

Four options are available. Note that fields may have a different overall appearance and 880 fields may not display in your particular Z39.50 client. See Z39.50 Configuration Guide for OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging for details on selecting an option.

Note: All records shown are MARC-8.

• Include all data, with non-Latin scripts in the 880 field(s).
  
  

• Include Latin script only [no 880 field(s)].
  
  

• Include all data, with Latin script in the 880 field(s).
  
  

• Include non-Latin scripts only [no 880 fields(s)].
  
  

MARC-8 Note

Note: When the MARC-8 default is retained, UTF-8 characters that cannot be converted to MARC-8 are displayed as hexadecimal numeric character references (view example).