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    How to configure Locate option in GUI search

    • Article Type: General
    • Product: Aleph
    • Product Version: 20

    Description:
    After I do a search in the GUI and then click "show" there is a button in the lower pane called "Locate". When I click it, I get a window "select databases to locate".
    1. Where are the libraries in this list from?
    2. What search is taken in the selected database after I choose a database and then click OK?

    Resolution:
    The list of libraries appearing in the window "select databases to locate" comes from the /alephcom/tab/locate.dat file on your PC.

    For example if locate.dat appears as follows then ABC01 Library and Library of Congress will appear as locate options
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+!!!!!
    ABC01 Library ABC01 ABC01
    Library of Congress LOC EXT01

    The procedures for locating a record in other libraries through GUI (and web) Search are defined in $data_tab/tab_locate
    It works as follows:
    Column 1 is the library which may be searched. It must appear the sanme way as it appears in $alephe_tab/tab_base.lng.
    Column 2 and column 3 contain the fields and sub fields which will be checked for similarity.
    Column 4 contains the actual find command.
    Column 5 contains an "extract" function defining how the contents of the fields are handled.

    The possible extract functions are described in the header. The two most popular ones are "locate_str_0" and "locate_str_1".
    They are defined as follows.

    ! Extract Functions:
    ! locate_str_0 - Takes subfield content as is.
    ! locate_str_1 - Runs "build_filing_key" on subfield and
    ! takes the 2 longest words.
    ! A word must be at least 2 characters in
    ! order to be considered as a "word".
    ! If the subfield has only one word, the one word
    ! will be taken.

    Thus if we have the following in tab_locate of ABC01 data_tab
    ABC01 100## a wau= locate_str_0
    LOC 245## a wti= locate_str_1

    and we search ABC01 and select record which has 245 field:
    24514 L $$aThe nineteen letters of Ben Uziel :$$bbeing a spiritual presentation of the principles of Judaism /$$cby Samson Raphael Hirsch ; translated by Bernard Drachman ; together with a preface and a biographical sketch of the author by the translator.

    and then we choose "locate" and then choose "Library of Congress" a new search will be done in Library of Congress for "WTI = nineteen and letters"

    IMPORTANT NOTE: When choosing "locate" after searching a z39.50 database the tab_locate table which is used come from the EXT01 library.

    If we were to have the following in tab_locate of ABC01 data_tab
    ABC01 100## a wau= locate_str_0
    ABC01 245## a wti= locate_str_1
    LOC 245## a wti= locate_str_0

    and do as we did above,
    a new search will be done in Library of Congress for "WTI = The nineteen letters of Ben Uziel"

    If we were to have the followind in tab_locate of EXT01 data_tab
    ABC01 100## a wau= locate_str_0
    ABC01 245## a wti= locate_str_1

    and we were to search Library of Congress and find a record with the following two fields:
    1001 L $$aJackson, William Vernon.
    24510 L $$aBasic library techniques;$$ba manual for Library science 195.

    and then select the record and click "locate" and choose ABC01, the following search would be done:

    "WAU - Jackson William" AND "WTI = techniques and library"


    • Article last edited: 10/8/2013
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