Creative Create Lists Elizabeth B. Thomsen Member Services Manager North of Boston Library Exchange et@noblenet.org

Create Lists: What is it? Program that brings together a file of records that have something in common Searches data stored in the records Creates a file of record numbers Records met the search conditions at the time the search was run Viewing, listing, etc., shows you current info

Create Lists: Why? Statistics– how many? Delete or update records as a batch Work on a group of records individually Produce a list: Print, e-mail, send to script to make web page, export to Access or Excel, etc.

Starting a Search Select a review file Name the file Choose the type of record Choose the range for the search

Searching: Type of Records What records do you want in your file? For statements, you need patrons; for global update, you need the records you’re updating; for item call numbers, you need items, etc.

The Law of One Hop You can always work with data in the selected record type, and records that are directly linked to it. This applies to searching, sorting, listing and exporting. Items are linked to bibs; orders are linked to bibs; orders are not linked to items Patrons are linked to items; bibs are linked to items; patrons are not linked to bibs

Record Links

Range for Searching Which records does the system have to examine? This is one of the most important decisions you make when you set up your search The fewer the records that have to be examined; the faster the search! Upstairs/Downstairs : Different logic

Range of Record Numbers By default, the system wants to search every record in the database. If your logins are scoped, you have the option to search a scoped range. (For NOBLE, logins are scoped to the library.)

Using a Review File as a Range

Call Number Index The call number index is handy for shelflist reports.

Call Number Index The call number index can also be used to get books on a specific topic.

Author Index The author index is fast and easy to use. Note that the author index may include added author fields.

Subject Index The subject index is handy – just remember to dedupe!

Advanced Sounds difficult, actually easy Advanced keyword indexes Use all the tricks here: contexts, truncation, Boolean operators, etc.

Advanced Keyword Index

Search Conditions Many Create Lists problems are the result of not understanding the data Plan for Create Lists by using data in consistent formats Consider adding new variable fields to records

Search Condition: Equals, Does Not Equal Data must match exactly Good with fixed fields to match codes Also useful to search for the absence or presence of variable fields

Absence of a Field Enter the field name, choose equals, and leave the field blank.

Presence of a Field Enter the field name, choose does not equal, and leave the field blank.

Search Condition: Has HAS searches for a string of characters anywhere in a field. Punctuation must be included MARC subfield delimiters need to be included in search if they fall within the string to be searched.

Search Condition HAS Example: Searching within the call number

Search Condition HAS Example: Note the subfield delimiters.

Search Condition: Greater Than; Less Than Mostly used for money and dates Watch out for blanks and zeroes

Matches: Unix Regular Expressions Pattern matching; much more flexible than searching for a specific string Can be incredibly complicated Learning just a few simple tricks can be useful Richard Jackson’s handout is invaluable!

Matching a Single Character The period matches any single character Two or more characters within brackets matches any of those characters [aeiou] You can use ranges of digits or letters within brackets [1-4] The carat within brackets means NOT these characters [^0-9]

Matching a Single Character Matches location codes that begin with BE and end with A, no matter what’s in the third position.

.* The Wildcard Gone Wild .* Wildcard: the period matches any single character The asterisk after any character means it may be repeated 0 or more times. Put them together and you have .* which means “maybe some stuff in between.”

The Wildcard Gone Wild Example Matches any of the following: African American actors|vBiography African American inventors |zMassachusetts|zLynn|vBiography. African Americans|xBiography

Working with Bibs, Items and Orders You can do just about anything you have authorization to do Add, edit or delete records View summary and edit attached records Add holds View the public display

Setting Up the Amazon Link In Settings, turn on the option to Show Book Jacket

Setting Up the Amazon Link In MilAcq, Choose Web Links to set up Amazon link

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/<ISBN>

Removing Records from a Review File

Sorting Sort different ways, look at the top and bottom of the list Check the middle record for the median If sorting by a repeatable field, sorting can increase the number of records in the file by adding duplicates Consider exporting or listing a single field, with the numbering turned on

Appending Records to a Review File Appending lets you do another search, putting the new records into an existing review file. Good for taking a “layered” approach to searching Even more useful now that we have deduping Use Append to merge two review file: Merging files

Adding Records to a Review File Instead of letting you do a new Boolean search, the Add option lets you do regular Millennium searching to select records to your review file. You have to start with a review file with at least one item in it.

The Label Queue Trick You can bypass Create Lists and create a review file by selecting individual items and saving them to the label queue. Go into Create Lists, select an empty file, and click on Copy. Scroll down to the bottom of the list to find your review file. One label queue per login

Label Queue Trick

Label Queue Trick

Listing Records Can list fields from any linked records Can list by field group tag or MARC tag (245|ab is often a better way to list titles) Turn on the numbering option if you want to go back to the file– but remember to remove records from the bottom up!

Exporting Records Choose fields as you would for listing Choose field delimiters Exports to a file on your own PC; import into Word, Excel, etc.

Sample Searches Sample Searches

Beyond Millennium Telnet version works well for scripting, and has two important features lacking in Millennium: Limit to a subset, and Printing full records Telnet staff catalog can also be used to produce review files: Spellmaster

Automate Your Systems Just schedule it Function Keys : Sample Macros Saved searches Scripts : telnet, Expect, etc., using the telnet version of Create Lists AutoIt : Using Auto It

Working with Output Reportster : Automating the process of getting data into Microsoft Access to produce standard reports Booklist Scripts : We use Perl scripts with an e-mail gateway to create booklists linked to the catalog

Elizabeth B. Thomsen Member Services Manager NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange et@noblenet.org NOBLE Swapshop http://www.noblenet.org/swapshop/