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For basic instructions for searching on-line libraries, see Search On-Line Libraries. Some strategies for refining searches are:
| 1 | Avail yourself of the field help to find out which fields are most likely to contain the information you want. Particularly useful here may be the list of corresponding MARC fields (another bibliographic data standard, also developed initially by the Library of Congress) for a given Z39.50 field. Even if you are not familiar with MARC, you can get some idea of the scope of a particular field, as well as its relationship to other similar fields, by making note of the number of MARC fields associated with each, as well as their overlap or divergence. |
| 2 | Select a different set of search fields by changing the Search Fields box at the bottom of the On-Line Library Search dialog: |
| • | All Fields: Show all Z39.50 fields (but of course not all libraries support all fields) |
| • | Basic Fields: Show a limited number of commonly used fields. Although the Basic Fields template shows some of the more common fields used by the majority of the libraries that can be searched in Archiva, in fact only a smaller subset of fields are contained in (almost) all of the libraries. These fields—identified as such in the Auto Field Help (they are shown in green)—are: |
| • | All other options show the fields defined by the overall search engine or affiliation of the library being searched. If there is a field template for the library you are searching, you are likely to get the best results by using that template, as opposed to either more expansive, or more restrictive, ones. |
| 3 | You may simply want to experiment a bit to find the best way of searching your favorite library. For example, if you find that entering an author's last name first does not yield results, try entering first name and then last name, or only the last name. |
| 4 | Alternatively, you could search the web (enter the name of your library, and "Z39.50," in your browser search field) to find the URL of your library's Z39.50 page. Some of these offer detailed instructions on how to search their underlying database, while others are largely silent on these issues. |
| 5 | You might want to go the Library of Congress Z39.50 page (as of March 19, 2008, http//www.loc.gov/z3950/gateway.html), and select the library from there to see what parameters are suggested for the desired library. While this list generally tells you what fields are safe to search for that library, it does not tell you that only those fields can be searched. Note also that while it is possible to actually start a Z39.50 search from these pages, and for Archiva to retrieve information from them, Archiva can retrieve more information, and capture it more accurately, if you start the Z39.50 search from within Ibidem. |
Once you've become familiar with how the library you want to search is best accessed, you can refine the searches you make using some of the following options:
| • | Use the drop-down list to the left of each field to select parameters for fields. There is some variation in how different libraries process data, and these parameters may work differently for different libraries. |
| • | Match Start of Field: Inserts caret (^) at the beginning of the text that has been entered. Use this to search for all words that are at the beginning of the field you are searching. |
| • | Left Truncate: Inserts asterisk at the beginning of text that has been entered. Use this to search for all words that might begin with various other letters, but which contain the letters entered. (Note: Most libraries do not support this option.) |
| • | Right Truncate: Inserts asterisk at the end of text that has been entered. Use this to search for all words that begin with letters entered, but end with other letters. |
| • | Match Phrase: Inserts straight quotes at the beginning and end of phrase that has been entered. Use this to search for a phrase rather than a list of words. |
| • | If searching the library from the Library of Congress page, or directly from the library home (Z39.50) page itself, often only a single, or sometimes up to three, fields are displayed. Archiva tries to expand those capabilities by offering you more field options, and always up to three fields (instead of only one). |
| • | You can specify whether multiple fields are combined using either And or Or (click the appropriate button at the bottom left). |
See also:
Search On-Line Libraries
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