© 2007 CBHL The CBHL Distributed Library The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries A Guide to Content and Search Features

© 2007 CBHL 2 Introduction The CBHL Distributed Library facilitates resource sharing within the botanical and horticultural library community. In this presentation, users will learn how to search the Distributed Library and the Union List of Botanical and Horticultural Serials.

© 2007 CBHL 3 Outline Overview of the Distributed Library. Overview of the Union List of Botanical and Horticultural Serials. Where to Begin Your Search. How to Participate.

© 2007 CBHL 4 The Distributed Library Simultaneously searches the online catalog of each participating institution using the Z39.50 protocol.  all records within the catalog including monographs and serials (print and/or electronic)  for the list of current participating libraries, see:

© 2007 CBHL 5 Searching the Distributed Library Search options:  Title  Keyword  Author  ISBN

© 2007 CBHL 6 Title Searches Some catalogs treat title searches as phrase searches within the title, others treat them as keyword searches within various title fields.  Select distinctive phrases from the title that will also work as keywords, or do two searches: one with a title phrase and one with unique title keywords. Journal titles are also retrieved through a title search.  Do not use abbreviated journal titles in the search. To help translate abbreviations into full titles, try JAS:

© 2007 CBHL 7 Author Searches Use the most unique author surname as your search term.  In most catalogs, author searches are treated as keyword searches within the various author fields.  Searches that include initials or given (first) names may not succeed.

© 2007 CBHL 8 Keyword Search Any search (keyword anywhere)  Select unique words from within the title, series, conference, etc. Keywords can also include ISSNs or ISBNs.  If you are unable to decipher a complete journal title, use two or three unique words from the title.  Use for searching a monographic series if it is not found with a title search.

© 2007 CBHL 9 The Distributed Library – Search Results Results from participants’ library catalogs.  In some institutions, the online catalog is a union catalog of many different libraries within a consortium or larger institution. When you search these combined catalogs through the Distributed Library, the local holdings information about which branch owns a particular item is not always available. Holdings of libraries which do not have catalogs compliant with the Distributed Library are not included; however, their holdings may be listed separately in the Union List of Serials.

© 2007 CBHL 10 The Distributed Library – Links to E-Pubs If you see a record that contains a hypertext "Link" in the "Electronic Version" field, click on the link to connect to the full-text document if it is publicly available. You may want to search using the search interface of the owning library’s catalog to determine more information about the item.  Go to the list of Participating Libraries to connect to the owning library’s catalog:

© 2007 CBHL 11 The Union List of Serials What’s included?  The Union List contains selected serials holding information, including the holdings of libraries that do not have online catalogs that can be searched via the Z39.50 protocol. For the list of libraries included in the Union List, see:  The Union List is not included as one of the searchable resources when you search the Distributed Library; therefore, it must be searched separately:

© 2007 CBHL 12 The Union List of Serials Search Options:  Browse Scroll through journal titles by alphabetical listing  Title and Keyword Exact first word(s) of the journal title Keyword(s) or phrase in the journal title  Multiple Keyword Two separate keywords within the journal title  Limit search to holdings of a specific library

© 2007 CBHL 13 The Union List of Serials Title Search:  Select unique words as a phrase from within the title.  Do not use abbreviated journal titles in the search. To help translate abbreviations into full titles, try JAS:

© 2007 CBHL 14 The Union List of Serials Keyword Search (keyword anywhere):  Select unique words from within the title.  If you are unable to decipher the complete journal title, use two or three unique words from the journal title.  A journal title keyword search can be useful for titles such as Proceedings or Transactions of organizations.

© 2007 CBHL 15 Where to Begin The Distributed Library  The comprehensive nature of the participants’ library catalogs makes the Distributed Library a good place to locate known items and to initiate interlibrary loan requests.  Serials holdings are included. If you are unable to locate serials using the Distributed Library, then try your search in the Union List.

© 2007 CBHL 16 How to Participate in the Distributed Library Libraries whose catalogs have Z39.50 server capabilities are invited to participate.  Contact Larry Currie.Larry Currie  Provide the following information: Catalog server IP address or Internet name (e.g., or libcat.calacademy.org) Z39.50 server port number for incoming queries (often 210, 7090 for Endeavor, 2200 for SIRSI, etc.) Internal database name for Z39.50 (Voyager, UNICORN, MARION, INNOPAC, etc.)

© 2007 CBHL 17 How to Participate in the Union List Libraries whose catalogs don’t have Z39.50 server capabilities are invited to participate.  Contact Larry Currie.Larry Currie  A simple set of Web-based forms will let you: Add your library’s serial holdings to existing records. Enter new journal titles not already in the Union List. Edit or delete your holdings to reflect local changes.

© 2007 CBHL 18 Where to Get More Information For more information about searching the Distributed Library or the Union List of Serials: To find out more about becoming a participating library, contact Larry CurrieLarry Currie