---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Vitor Fernandes <vitorfernandes87@gmail.com> Date: 2011/5/26 Subject: Re: [Koha] Z39.50 Search To: Joel Harbottle <Joel.Harbottle@hotmail.com.au> Hi Joel, Thanks for the explanation. I've developed a client (JAVA) to search Z39.50 servers and get records from it. The problem is in the queries sent to the server, and I'm not familiar with the query language. I've checked out in Perl code of Koha and for example for search the title the query is something like this: @attr 1=4 "search word" By the tests I've done, I think that the if the search word is "a*" the search returns the resultset with the records that in the title has at least one word started with a. (@attr 1=4 "a*"). Now I need to pass another queries conditions. Something like: (@attr 1=4 "a*") or (@attr 1=4 "b*"). It's this possible?? All help that you can send to me I'll be tremendously appreciated. Regards. Vitor Fernandes 2011/5/26 Joel Harbottle <Joel.Harbottle@hotmail.com.au>:

Hi Victor,

Normally, in the world of Cataloguing, the letter “a” is what we call an “initial article”. Initial Articles are usually ignored when you are searching databases, e.g. Library Catalogues.

In my experience, I have found though that Koha will search initial article’s instead of ignoring them, but most z39.50 Server’s stick to the rules of Initial Articles are ignored.

Some of the many known Initial Articles for example are:

a and of the to

For example, when you are cataloguing using MARC format, you would indicate that the title starts with an Initial Article utilising your MARC Indicators, that way your ILS will ignore the initial article when creating a list of titles in filing order.

Example title: The brief history of Australia : a study guide for students / by Joe Bloggs ; edited by John Who.

245 14 $aThe brief history of Australia :$ba study guide for students /$cby Joe Bloggs ; edited by John Who.

    MARC Tag Details:     245 = Title Statement     Indicator 1 = 1 (Added Entry)     Indicator 2 = 4 (Character count of initial article, in the example title “The” = 3 characters + space = 4 characters)     Subfield a: Title     Subfield b: Subtitle     Subfield c: Statement of Responsibility

Therefore, with the example, when it is listed in a Shelf List the ILS sees it as: “brief history of Australia : a study guide for students” instead of “The brief history of Australia : a study guide for students”, but still prints the word “the” in the title on the Shelf List.

I hope that answers your question in some form.

Kindest Regards, Joel

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From: Vitor Fernandes <vitorfernandes87@gmail.com> Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 10:16:19 +0100 To: Koha List <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> Subject: [Koha]  Z39.50 Search

Hi there Koha community,

I've one question about Z39.50, which is not directly related with Koha. If I search in Koha for titles with "a" in the Z39.50 search, what is returned?

Records with the word "a" in the title? Records with the letter "a" in the title or words started by "a"?

This question it's because I need to do a query to one Z39.50 server that returns me the records with at least one word started with "a". If someone can help me, i would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Vitor Fernandes _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha