Search On-Line Libraries

With Archiva, you can search for books at the Library of Congress and over 500 other major university and research libraries from around the world.

When you use the Search On-Line Libraries function, you are searching libraries that use the Z39.50 protocol. Z39.50 is an international protocol for searching and retrieving information from on-line computer databases, specifically related to libraries and their bibliographic holdings. The standard was first developed in the 1970's, initially under the auspices of the Library of Congress.

To do a library search:

1	From the Ibidem screen, click Select, On-Line Libraries, or press Ctrl+L to open the Archiva On-Line Library Search dialog.

2	The Search Pane will open with Web Libraries selected. Libraries that can be searched will be shown in the main box at the top of the search pane. Click to check the libraries that you would like to search.

3	To add libraries to the list of those that can be searched, click the icon to the right of the list of libraries. The Archiva On-Line Library Search dialog will open.

•	From the list of libraries in the panel on the right side of the dialog, click to highlight a library that you would like to add and then click Add to List. The library will appear in the panel on the left side. Repeat this for each library you would like to be able to search.

•	If you would like to add a new library that uses the Z39.50 protocol, click New and fill in the requested information. See Add New Library.

•	In the panel on the left side, you can remove a library or change the order in which they are listed. Click to highlight the library you would like to change and then click Remove or Move Up or Move Down.

•	In the panel on the left side, click to check the libraries you want to search. Note that you can keep a list of frequently used libraries on the left side of the panel and check only the ones you want to use for the current search.

4	Use the bottom of the search pane to enter search terms as follows:

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Use the dropdown list at the bottom of the search pane to select the fields to be displayed. In general, different libraries have different parameters for entering search terms. Although Z39.50 is a standard, its implementation depends on the specifics of the server that is queried during a search. When you select a different setting, you will see the fields change in the panel above. For many of the libraries, the search fields that you should use are specified in parentheses next to the name of the library.

•	Enter search terms in the fields provided.

•	If search terms have been entered in more than one field, choose whether you want to join fields with AND or OR.

•	Choose where you want to have the search results displayed. For details about this option, see Show Results.

5	Click OK to begin the search.

6	Results are presented in a temporary Ibidem database called {Library Search}. You can edit the records and/or add them to your permanent Ibidem database.

Check the records that you would like to add to your database and use the bar at the bottom left of the screen to specify which records you would like to add (current record, checked record, etc.) and which database should receive the record(s). Click the first button to the right to add the record (s) or the second one to check each record for duplicates before adding.

Most libraries do not require you to log in with a user name and password. But if your library does require authentication, see Library Log In.

Archiva Library Search contains about 500 pre-configured library databases. Archiva Clipboard Watcher contains sophisticated rules that read the HTML text on the site, and convert the information to Ibidem format. The rules that govern this process are stored in the LIBRULES.TBL file. As might be expected, the various web sites and/or formats recognized by Archiva sometimes change. Various updates to the main Nota Bene program may contain updated rules.

Archiva: Search On-Line Libraries