Question

How to get data from fields in bibliographic records that have left-anchored indexes in Voyager using Prepackaged Access Reports?

Answer

If the data that you want can be searched using a left-anchored index, consider using the BIB_INDEX table.

• To use BIB_INDEX, you need to know what value of INDEX_CODE to use.
• You can look the INDEX_CODE up in the SEARCHPARM table.
• The NORMAL_HEADING is a version of the search string that is normalized for capitalization, punctuation, subfield coding, and other formatting.
• The DISPLAY_HEADING has subfield coding removed but is otherwise pretty much what you find in the bibliographic record.

Here's a way to find out what is in BIB_INDEX using an Access query:

Here's an example of the results of that query:

• IX=B means we’re talking about the index of bib records.
• The first 3 rows index the 245 field, AL=245S+= is the list of subfields that are indexed.
• NF=2 means that the 2^nd indicator says how many characters to skip to skip over leading articles.
• NM= is the normalization rules, and you don’t usually have to worry about them.
• So you see that the 245 is indexed with 3 different sets of subfields, and the indexes are called 2450, 2451, and 2452.

The following is an example of a query to see how the 245 is indexed in a simple bibliographic record. Here's the query:

Here's the results of that query:

Additional Information

Example query that looks for LC subject headings that contain the string "nurs":

• Article last edited: 03-Jun-2020