Search tips for OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging

Databases available

In addition to OLUCWorldCat, 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.

Indexes available

The indexes provided by the server are listed in the section below about MARC fields and subfields indexed.

Word and phrase indexes

Most indexes in OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging are word or phrase indexes. The following examples highlight the differences between them:

• To search for the title Baffled, but not beaten, or, Nick Carter's fight for life in a phrase index, you must enter the entire title: baffled but not beaten or nick carters fight for life. Your search finds only records containing that specific title.
  
  In a word index you enter one-or-more words from the title, for example, you might enter baffled and beaten. Your search finds the records containing the title Baffled, but not beaten, or, Nick Carter's fight for life and it also finds other records containing baffled and beaten.
   
• To search for the title Emma in a phrase index, you enter emma. Your search finds only records containing that one-word title.
  
  In a word index, if you enter emma, your search finds all records containing emma anywhere in the title.

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.

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

ISSN, ISBN, LCCN

When searching for International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSNs), International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), and Library of Congress Control Numbers (LCCNs), use the following rules:

• Enter an ISSN with a hyphen. For example, to search for ISSN 0043-5651, enter: 0043-5651
• Enter an ISBN without hyphens. For example, to search for ISBN 0-316-08275-9, enter: 0316082759
• Enter an LCCN as an eight- or ten-digit number without a hyphen. The first two or four (beginning 2001) digits represent the year; the remainder of the number has six digits including leading zeros. For example:
  • to search for the LCCN 86-3211, enter: 86003211
  • to search for the LCCN 2001-33918, enter: 2001033918

Music number

Music number searching has been normalized. Data is concatenated up to parentheses, periods and dashes ( “ab(123)”, “ab.123”, and “ab-123” are all searchable as “ab123”). Each music number up to a comma is indexed alone. All letters of your search term are significant and should be included. The maximum number of valid numbers per record is 20.

Dewey Decimal classification

Dewey Decimal classification indexes use only the subject portion of the call numbers assigned. Decimal points are retained. Concatenate all spaces and ignore all punctuations except periods.

For example, to search for the subject Manned space flight, enter: 629.45.

Library of Congress classification

Library of Congress classification indexes use only the subject portion of the call numbers assigned. Zero ranging has been eliminated. Only subfield a of the classification number is searchable. For example “QA74.M7” can now only be accessed under “QA74”.

Government document number

Delete all punctuation and spaces to search government document numbers.

For example, to search for Y 4.P 96/10:N 81 d, enter: y4p9610n81d

Subject heading phrase

Each part of a subject heading is indexed as a separate phrase. For example, Ireland--History--Civil War, 1922-1923 is indexed as the following phrases:

• ireland
• history
• civil war 1922-1923

Right truncation is supported for subject heading phrases.

Title phrase

Omit initial articles (a, an, the, and the non-English equivalents) from your title search.

The title and subtitle (subfields a and b of the 245 field) are combined and indexed as a single phrase. For example, Around the majors in 60 days : my baseball dream is indexed as around the majors in 60 days my baseball dream. Because right truncation is supported for title phrases, you can enter around the majors to search for this title and others that begin around the majors, if right truncation is set.

If your client supports the Z39.50 Scan Service, you can browse indexes to view a list of the words or phrases included. OCLC recommends browsing the title phrase index before searching to verify the phrase to use.

Authors names in phrase indexes

When searching a subject phrase index for records describing materials about an author (or any person), enter the last name first and then the first name. Do not enter a comma after the last name.

When searching an author phrase index for records describing materials by an author, enter the last name first, a comma, and then the first name.

If your client supports the Z39.50 Scan Service, you can browse indexes to view a list of the words or phrases included. OCLC recommends browsing the author phrase index before searching to verify the phrase to use.

When you browse an author phrase index, last names that begin with the same word are listed in the following order:

1. Two-word unhyphenated last names
2. Two-word hyphenated last names
3. Single-word last names

For example, the following names would appear in the order shown below:

1. lloyd weber, andrew
2. lloyd-jones, charles
3. lloyd, alan

Date of sale (SCIPIO only)

You can enter a date of sale as a single day (month-day-year or month-year) or as a date range.

• Single day: Enter April 15, 2005 as 04152005
  Or
  Single month: Enter April, 2005 as 042005
   
• Date range. Enter any date within the range. Given a record representing a sale held from June 25, 1955 to July 9, 1955, users should be able to enter:
  
  Date range: 06291955 (June 29, 1955) or 06301955-07311955 (June 30-July 3, 1955)

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.

Please note that WorldCat indexing does not directly follow the Bib-1 attribute set and there may be local differences between what OCLC has mapped and the Bib-1 attribute set available on the Library of Congress Z39.50 Maintenance Agency Page.

Z39.50 attribute map for OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging indexing

Default holdings

When you choose default holdings, the default is determined as follows:

948 fields

The 948 fields are configured as follows:

The 948 fields are listed alphabetically by library name.

Examples:

• 948 ‡a US ‡b OH ‡c APL ‡d Akron-Summit Cnty Pub Libr
• 948 ‡a US ‡b OH ‡c SID ‡d Amos Mem Pub Libr
• 948 ‡a US ‡b OH ‡c OH9WF ‡d Avon Lake Pub Libr

 Note: Widely-held items with large numbers of 948 fields may produce records too large for some Z39.50 clients to display.