October 02, 2008

MNCAT handout

The Guide to MNCATPlus is on the Handouts to Download page.

-Kate P.

Posted by iris at 04:35 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2008

MNCAT guides - pdf online

1.) Searching for MNCAT Plus for Books and More: http://lib.umn.edu/pdf/mncathow.pdf
2.) Searching for Books: http://www.lib.umn.edu/research/instruction/modules/lsamp-books3/index.html

Posted by iris at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2008

Command Language for limiting results to books in Wilson Ref

To search by keyword etc. for books, limiting to books in Wilson Reference, the command language is this:

wrd=keywordwhatever and wsc=twilsref

see example below / Denny

wrd=gothic and wsc=twilsref

MNCAT Twin Cities

Results for : General Keywords= gothic and Library/Collection= twilsref Sorted by: Year (descending)/Author
Sort options: Author/TitleAuthor/Year(d)Title/Year(d)Year(a)/TitleYear(d)/Title Year(d)/Author
Display options : Vertical view Table view


Records 1 - 20 of 28 (maximum display and sort is 5000 records)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- Full View - Title American history through literature, 1820-1870 / Janet Gabler-Hover & Robert Sattelmeyer, editors in chief.


Published Detroit : Charles Scribner’s Sons, c2006.


Internet Access [Table of contents ]--http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0517/2005023615.html


Availability TC Wilson Library Reference Quarto PS217.H57 A84 2006 Regular Loan




2- Full View - Author Frank, Frederick S.


Title Guide to the Gothic III : an annotated bibliography of criticism, 1994-2003 / Frederick S. Frank.


Published Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2005.


Availability TC Wilson Library Reference PN3435 .F73 2005 Regular Loan




3- Full View - Author Snodgrass, Mary Ellen.


Title Encyclopedia of Gothic literature / Mary Ellen Snodgrass.


Published New York : Facts on File, 2005.


Availability TC Wilson Library Reference PN3435 .S58 2005 Regular Loan

Posted by iris at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2008

Add-ons and widgets - Amazon/MNCAT lookup tool

University of Minnesota Libraries -- Add MNCAT Lookup to Amazon ...
... Libraries Home > How to > Tools and Widgets > Add MNCAT Lookup to Amazon
Searches. Add MNCAT Lookup to Amazon Searches. Have you ever ...
www.lib.umn.edu/site/mncatamazon.phtml - 7k

University of Minnesota Libraries -- Tools and Widgets
... browsers built in search box; Add MNCAT Lookup to Amazon Searches -- Now
fixed! Download the most recent version! Determine if a book ...
www.lib.umn.edu/site/widgets.phtml - 8k

Posted by iris at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2006

FIXIT info - comments from staff

Fixit works for any problem in MNCAT (a.k.a. Aleph). We can also fix our records in RLG's Eureka and OCLC's WorldCat. If the problem is in a different database than those three, or if it is with the U Libraries interface, it should go to someone else. If you're not sure who to send something to, we'll be happy to help you get it directed to the right place.

Stephen

-------------------------------------
Yes, fixit is still in operation, and it should be used for reporting errors in data in MNCAT.
These shouldn't come to autosys. On the other hand, if MNCAT is down or there are problems with
searching, etc., those should come to autosys and should be assigned to LEO.

Chris M

Posted by iris at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2006

MNCAT call numbers in on-order items

I checked with Lois , and her understanding is that we can't suppress the call number from displaying for on-order items now that we are creating holdings records for all orders. The words "On Order" do appear on all the screens where the call number appears, in most cases immediately adjacent to the call number information. - Stephen

Posted by iris at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

MNCAT In Transit status and MINITEX ILL function

To summarize ...
MINITEX is now using Aleph ILL for lending.
Items lent will appear in MNCAT as In Transit with a due date of the expected return date.
Any item in MNCAT that is In Transit and due more than 10 days in the future is an item lent through ILL.
Users are better off making a separate ILL request for these items instead of simply recalling them.

see full e-mail from Chris R. in Wilson Circ.

Posted by iris at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2005

MNCAT command for newly cat mats

Hi, HSS collection managers--Want to create new book lists for yourself or for faculty?

...
EXCERPT from EMAIL of 9/2/2005 Creating new book lists - from Judy Wells

Stephen H suggests the following command search string to discover recently published, newly cataloged materials (by month) in Wilson Library classification numbers. All of the parameters can be adjusted for other months, locations, or class number ranges. Go to the Aleph command search screen and type the following kind of search in the big box:

wna=cat2005-07? and wsl=twils and wdt=(2004 or 2005) and lcnlm=hg->hg9999

This particular search string will retrieve titles cataloged in July 2005, located in the Wilson general collection, and with a publication date of 2004 or 05 and in the LC class HG.

If you want materials cataloged during a different month or range of months, you adjust the wna=cat part of the search. If you want materials cataloged for a different location, you adjust the sublibrary (wsl=) location.

If you want books with 2003 dates or a range of dates, adjust the wdt= part of the search.

In the search shown above, you would get all of the LC classification HG titles cataloged during the month.
If you want an LC class range, for example HF5601-HF5689 (Accounting), try this:

lcnlm=hf5601->hf5689

The last element of the search (hf5689) will pick up all of the 5689s, including something like hf5689.27
Or as Stephen says:
When the boundaries are intact class numbers like this, the ranged LCNLM search is fairly straightforward. Parentheses aren't needed, though they won't hurt either. If there were any titles with numbers like HF5689.27, they'd be included, too. Numbers beginning HF5690 and higher would be excluded.
DO NOT use the command CALNO= for call number searches. This command doesn't work --the index has been dropped. The correct command is lcnlm= (unless you really want to look for Sudocs or Dewey numbers or some other classification system).

Commands used in command searching are at:
http://www.lib.umn.edu/books/acls.phtml
and at the bottom of the command search screen in MNCAT.

See also, the Aleph manual, beginning at page 14.
http://wiki.lib.umn.edu/wupl/LEO.Aleph500Training/1611manual.pdf

Library and Collection codes are at:
http://www.lib.umn.edu/books/csbc.phtml

These command searches work only if you can supply the exact LC class number ranges for materials and if you are willing to do a little editing of the list to weed out anything you think is not going to be of interest to your readers.

Once you have a set of titles in MNCAT, you can export them to your computer, and you can import the citations into RefWorks for further manipulation.
Directions are at:
http://www.lib.umn.edu/refworks/import/MNCAT.pdf

In addition, Stephen and Betsy are working towards finding an easier way for us to create New Book lists by subject. For now, the above search string, with your appropriate modifications, should help you to identify books new to our library.

Additional comments from Stephen on which commands work, which truncation rules work, and additional pointers are in the attachment.

Thank you, Stephen.

You may want to experiment with some command searching in Aleph and see if the new title list it creates works for you. If you get stuck or need advice on difficult command searches, Stephen Hearn is happy to help us with our questions.

Best,
Judy


Also an attached document:
ranged call number searching1.doc

Posted by iris at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2005

Some MNCAT subject headings alphabetizing incorrectly

Recently found quite a few subject entries in MNCAT that were alphabetizing under an initial "The" or "An" or "A" (and were not showing up alphabetically under the first significant word). Sent note to Fixit, who said it's some sort of glitch they're aware of so presumably will get fixed soon; in the meanwhile perhaps we should check things both ways when appropriate. See saliant bits of my message below / Denny

because it's alphabetizing under "The" -- one
of a whole bunch of subject headings that seem to do so, such as

the shadow


2 The Saturday evening post
1 The Seventh Seal

The Shadow (Fictitious character) - [LC Heading Information]
See: Shadow (Fictitious character)
1 The Shadow line [Videorecording]
1 The Shadow (New York, N.Y.)
1 The Smart set

The Sound (Denmark and Sweden) - [LC Heading Information]
See: Sound, The (Denmark and Sweden)
1 The South Atlantic Quarterly
1 The Southeran literary messenger
1 The Southern literary messenger

************************************************************************

Surely a computer glitch, or have the rules changed when I wasn't looking?
Most of the subject headings coming up alphabetized under initial "The"
seem to be for periodical titles, but not all ( see The Arts ).

Also found at least three subject headings alphabetized under initial word An

1 An apologeticall narration, humbly submitted to the honourable Houses of Parliament
1 An apologie for Mr. John Goodwin -- Early works to 1800
1 An Appeal for theological affirmation


and at least a couple under initial A (I didn't check far with these)

1 A word for the armie

1 A Yorkshire tragedy

Posted by iris at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2005

Where are links to search engines from new home page?

With the revised library home page, we no longer have a link to the search engines page at

http://www.lib.umn.edu/investigate/

see below... / Denny (who's kind of boggled)

Sent this note to Shane:

We've had a couple of people looking for the page that used to be under
"Reference Sources" (I think) that provided links to a number of search
engines (google, yahoo, ask jeeves, and so on). It doesn't seem to be
there, or any place findable by us, any more.

We do, of course, constantly have users needing to search the web. I
suspect most of them (and most of us) rely heavily on one or two
engines and can individually enter those URLs, but I do think a
fairly prominent "search the web" page with links to a number of
search engines is still needed. Is it still around somewhere where
we can't find it, or did it get deleted in the new version?

**************

his reply:


Thanks for the email. The old page was not deleted, but in the short period of time to convert the old to the new it was not made a part of the new web site. The old page can still be found at:

http://www.lib.umn.edu/investigate/

As you say, most people already know how to search the web and most likely they already know how to get to their favorite search engines. I am not opposed to seeing these pages return, but I do think they are a lot of work to maintain for what was really not that much use. Do you want to bring this up at an AP/HSS meeting and ask if anyone else mourns the loss of these pages? Or suggest that someone can make some PageScribe pages out of them?

Shane

Posted by iris at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2005

U of MN Theses With Ambigious MNCAT Records

I found several cases of MNCAT records for U of MN theses in which the record did indicate if thesis was master's or doctoral. I reported to Fixit, with details and reply noted below. (All that I found were BioMed theses, but given what I was searching for that's not necessarily indicative; all four that I found turned out to be PhDs, but again I don't know if that's "always" the answer or not.) / Denny Lien

At 04:40 PM 8/9/2005, you wrote:
I just had a question about U of MN PhD dissertations dealing with paranoia
and/or schizophrenia, and in the course of digging up records on same ran
across several 1978-1980 records for biomedical theses in which the MNCAT
record says just "Thesis" -- with no way to determine if it's a PhD or a
Master's. I checked these against Digital Dissertations and verified that
all of these four are in fact PhDs, but I wonder if this is the tip of the
iceberg and/or if this is a known glitch that might get fixed at some point...

Denny Lien / Wilson IRIS

*************

Author Prosser, Robert Andrew.

Title Reinforcement and hypohedonia in schizophrenia / by
Robert Andrew Posser.

Published 1980.

Description vi, 130 leaves ; 29 cm.


Availability TC Bio-Medical Library WM203 P966r 1980 Regular Loan


Note Thesis--University of Minnesota.

Stephen Hearn replied:

Denny,

I think these notes come from pre-AACR2 practice, which tended to vary more. AACR2 specifies that thesis notes contain the degree, the institution, and the year. Many of the pre-AACR2 notes did this. Searching on "wth=minnesota 1978 not wth=(m or b or d or ms)" finds 23 out of 187 records from 1978 which don't specify the degree in the thesis note. For many the degree is identifiable from the call number, but not all, such as the Biomed ones you found. So happily the submerged portion of this iceberg appears to be part that's OK.

I'll look into this some more and get back to you. Thanks for reporting it.

Stephen

Posted by iris at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2005

Monographic Series in MLAC - MNCAT records

Lynn and I were chatting the other day, and I thought that I would pass this along, as I did not know it. Very frequently the series title for a monographic series will show that that monographic series is in MLAC, but the *individual titles* of the various volumes will give a Wilson Library call number.

These are being corrected as they are found. Frequently they are esoteric titles that our most scholarly users want.

So please double-check on the series title when you get the following message for holdings data:

Check shelf if print/microform resource; Click URL if Internet resource

This shows up at the bottom of the holdings screen, and is our clue to look further under the series title.

If you find a mistake, cut-and-paste and sent to the following:

fixit@tc.umn.edu

If this is unclear, then just see Lynn or me and we will explain further.

Most cordially, Celia

Posted by iris at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)