Libraries Australia Release Notes
2009 2007 |
2008 2006 |
2008 2007 2005 |
Libraries Australia Search (LAS) Release Notes
LAS 2.4.4 (Released 18 Aug 2009) - Current Version
Check Copyright Status
A Check Copyright Status button has been added to the Libraries Australia Search display which links to the National Library of Australia's copyright status service for confirming the status of a particular Australian work.
The Copyright Status button appears to the right of the Get This Item button in Libraries Australia Search in the Full View screen. The Full View screen is activated via Summary results screen, by clicking on the hyperlinked title of an item.
Clicking on the Check Copyright Status button activates an algorithm which generates information regarding copyright use and provisions by using the information contained in the bibliographic record of the item in the Australian National Bibliographic Database. The provision of this information in both the free search and subscription services of Libraries Australia will provide clear copyright information to users. A link to 'How copyright status is determined' is also provided within the copyright information display. Text and images provide explanations as to how the copyright status is calculated.
It is important to note that the calculation of copyright status will only ever be as accurate and complete as the data contained in the catalogue record.
ARROW Database enhancements
Four enhancements have been made to the ARROW database functionality, including a name change to Australia Research Online (ARO). They are:
- inclusion of publication date in record display
- ability to use limits has been removed
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publisher is now functioning as a search option via Z39.50.
LAS 2.4.1 (Released 11 Mar 2009)
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Download pdf)
Enhanced Functionality
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Ability to search ISBN, ISSN and LCCN indexes in OCLC WorldCat
When OCLC WorldCat is the selected database, the Advanced Search facility now supports searching of ISBN, ISSN and LCCN indexes through the 'Number' search option in the drop-down boxes.
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Information passed from APAIS to Copies Direct is correctly rendered
When an article is selected in an APAIS search result, the 'At Other Libraries' or 'Bookshop/Suppliers' tab clicked, and the 'Request a Photocopy Through Your Library' or 'Order a Copy from Copies Direct' option selected, the information in the Copies Direct form is correctly populated. The journal title, issue number and pagination appear in the Title field. The author and article title appear in the Item Required field.
LAS 2.4.0 (Released 10 Feb 2009)
New Functionality
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Access to Maps of Australia from Libraries Australia Search
The purpose of this enhancement is to alert people who are searching for maps, or who have found a map record in Libraries Australia, to the Maps of Australia service. The link to the Maps of Australia service appears in between the holdings statement/s and footer as well appearing in the Summary box just below the database name and record count. The wording is “Looking for maps of Australia? Try our geospatial map search.” The link goes to http://mapsearch.nla.gov.au.
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Additional online bookshops
13 new bookshops (including descriptions) have been added to the “Get this item – At Bookshops/Suppliers” list.
They are:
National Library Online Shop, Alexander Fax Books, Ark House Press, Books Direct, Koorong Bookstores, Mandala Books, Smith’s Alternative Bookshop, Sound Books, Sunset Books and Music, Textbooks4U, The Nile, University of New South Wales Bookshop and Word Bookstore.
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Additional option for number load files
There is a now an additional option for extracting records from ANBD based on a file of numbers. Previously customers could provide files of ANBD numbers, ISBNs or ISSNs. Now an input file of Library of Congress record numbers supplied by you can also be used to extract records from the ANBD.
Enhanced Functionality
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Coins support for MARC databases available through Libraries Australia
COinS (Context Objects in Spans, http://coins.info) is a specification for encoding structured bibliographic information in an HTML page. It is part of the OpenURL standard. The COinS code is dynamically generated to the full details page in Libraries Australia. The COinS code is not visible on the page but can be read by tools like Zotero (www.zotero.org) and is visible if you view the source of the page. COinS support has not been implemented for non-MARC databases available through Libraries Australia, such as Picture Australia, ARROW and APAIS.
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Improved readability of Holdings display in Libraries Australia Search full view
In Libraries Australia Search, the display of holdings in Full View where there are multiple subfields was not clear. This enhancement is for the MARC 850 holdings tag, where $b is the local system number and $c is the call number information. The following changes have been made to make the holdings tag easier to read:
- enclosing the contents of the $b subfield in brackets
- separating multiple occurrences of the $c call number information subfield and other repeated subfields by ‘space semi-colon space’.
- Change of name of RIS as an option as download record format
When using Libraries Australia Search, users are able to save items retrieved during their search and download the records. There are a number of options regarding in which format/s the record/s can be downloaded. The format choices appear as radio buttons: Brief records, Full records, MARC (Unicode), MARC (Marc-8) and RIS. The use of the RIS acronym (usually attributed to Record Import Service) has been replaced by the wording, Citation format (e.g. EndNote).
LAS 2.3.0 (Released 8 Aug 2007)
Enhanced Functionality
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Powerhouse Museum Database
The ability to search the Powerhouse Museum as a free database target within Libraries Australia Search. To search the Powerhouse Museum, navigate to the 'Select Databases' page, and click the checkbox next to 'Powerhouse Museum OpenSearch'. Save your changes and execute a search. Please note, searches against the Powerhouse Museum are restricted to keyword searches, and as a result, any broadcast searches will also be limited to this index.
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040 Tag
When a new record is added to Libraries Australia using Web Cataloguing form, the system now automatically adds an appropriate 040 (cataloguing source) tag to the record, including both $a and $c subfields which both contain the organisation’s NUC symbol. The cataloguing source added will be the organisation of the user who entered the record.
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Default Advanced Search Fields
In Libraries Australia Search, on the Advanced Search form, rather than having the default search fields as “Title” in all three drop down boxes, three different options are now presented:
- Title
- Subject
- ISBN
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Increased Security
When logging in to LA Admin and Search, usernames and passwords were previously sent in plain text over the network (http). This has been modified to use https, which means that this information is encrypted when travelling over the network. LA Admin (including the Customer Management System, Products, RIS and RES) has also been modified to use https for all transactions. This means that organisation details and transaction information is now more secure.
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Authorities Simple Search
In the Simple Search screen of Libraries Australia Search, users can now enter an ANBD number and have the corresponding authority record returned (if the authorities database is selected as a search target). Leading zeros are not recognised and should not be included in the search term.
LAS 2.2.0 (Released 28 Nov 2006)
New Functionality
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New databases that can be searched from Libraries Australia Search
Two new Thai databases will be added to Libraries Australia Search in a later release, they will also be searchable via Z39.50.
Informit e-Library has been added as a free Libraries Australia Search and Z39.50 search target. Records from the e-library provide a link to the full text which opens in a new window from within the record and is also available from the “Get this item” button. There is no charge to search e-Library; however, access to the full text is on a pay per view basis.
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Support for Relevance Ranking
Results returned are now ranked by relevance. A single set of search results is returned for the NBD, rather than being grouped into Titles, Authors and Subjects.
The following searches return relevance ranked results: Simple Search, Advanced Search, Command Search, Z39.50 Search.
When viewing all results for a search, a drop down box is available to sort the results. The default sort is by Relevance.
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Free search box available for any external web page
A html search box has been created which searches the ANBD database only (no other targets). If users are IP authenticated or already logged in to Libraries Australia, the box will search the subscription service instead of the free service.
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OpenSearch protocol compliance
Both the ANBD and the Picture Australia targets can be searched through Libraries Australia using the Open Search protocol. The search is available to anyone.
Only the information normally provided on the free search brief results screen is included in the results.
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New Index: Related Periodicals
A new Related Periodicals index has been created in order to improve the retrieval of linked titles – both as a keyword (RW) and phrase (RP). These indexes can be searched using Z39.50 – use attribute 1028 – Related periodical and through the command search available on the advanced search page.
The indexed fields are 022$a, 130, 245 (omit $c), 247, 780 (omit $i), 785(omit $i, $7), 880=$6.
Enhanced Functionality
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Alerts - options for new & updated records
Alerts have been modified so that customers do not have to be notified of updated bibliographic records. Options for alerts now include the choice of:
- New additions to the database
- New additions and update
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Changes to Enhanced requesting
A number of changes have been made to enhanced requesting.
- Libraries with multiple branches can now make it mandatory for requesters to input a pick-up location.
- Libraries that allow interlibrary loans to be used only within the library can now choose to display this on the loan request form.
- Libraries using their own interlibrary loan systems to interoperate with Libraries Australia Document delivery can now have the enhanced requests load into their own interlibrary loan system for processing.
In all three cases changes need to be made to the library’s records in the Libraries Australia Administration system. Libraries that wish to make use of this functionality should contact the Libraries Australia Help desk.
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Importing records from other databases
Records can be imported into Libraries Australia from other databases. On displaying a record form another database (eg Library of Congress) in Libraries Australia, an “Add Record” button displayed. This was confusing, as the “Add record” Tab at the top of the screen took users to the blank Web cataloguing form. The “Add Record” button in Libraries Australia Search has been changed to read “Import Record” on both the Full and Librarian’s view when viewing a record.
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Display all data when viewing an NBD record via a resolver
The full record is now shown (rather than the brief record) when accessing a record from the resolver service.
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Extended Deep Linking
Deep linking (integration with specific libraries catalogue searches) has been added for approximately 120 extra libraries. This can be seen in the Libraries Australia Search application as the addition of a “search catalogue” button for resources held by these libraries on the Get this item > At Other Libraries screen.
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Add record titles to LA full view page title
When accessing a record in Libraries Australia through a resolver, rather than displaying “Libraries Australia – Full View” as the page title, the record name is now shown. For example, “Libraries Australia – The curly pyjama letters / Michael Leunig
LAS 2.1.7 (Released 22 Aug 2006)
New Functionality
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Additional Online Bookshops
13 new bookshops have been added to the ‘get this item – At Bookshops/Suppliers’ list.
These are:
Adelaide Booksellers, Booktopia, Books Kinokuniya, Emporium Books, Kenneth Hince Old & Fine Books, Leading Edge Books, Leatherwood Books, Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers, Printed Image Bookshop, Sainsbury’s Books, Shearer’s Bookshop, Therapy Bookshop, and University of Melbourne Bookshop.
Emporium Books and University of Melbourne Bookshop both automatically display the availability of the item.
Enhanced Functionality
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Error messages displayed when users attempt to perform a function they do not have permission for.
Error messages were being displayed when users were attempting to perform a function that they did not have permission to access. For example, when users clicked on a link in a Products email, unless they were already logged in, they were assumed to be a user of the free service. They were therefore advised that they did not have permission to access the function.
This has been amended so that a login screen is presented and the error message reads “Only authorised users may perform this action. Please login to proceed, or contact Libraries Australia for more information.”
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An error message is return when attempting to "get this item" for a record from Google search or an alert email
IP authenticated users who were not logged in and were accessing records found in a Google search, or in an alert email were experiencing an error message instead of the ‘get this item’ screen.
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The "in library" limit goes missing when a query/alert is saved.
If a search which included use of the “in library” limit was saved as a query or an alert, this limit was not saved as part of the query.
This has been amended, and the ‘in library’ limit is now saved.
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'Get this item' not working from saved records
The ‘get this item’ option was available on saved records, but was resulting in an error message.
The full ‘get this item’ functionality is now available from saved records.
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Option to remove 880 fields (script) fields from records for products
The products system has been modified to provide an option when scheduling products to select whether 880 fields (and the associated linking subfields in other tags) should be included in the records output.
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“Get this item” Booksellers page reconfigured
The list of booksellers on the ‘get this item – suppliers/booksellers’ screen has been modified so that Australian booksellers (in alphabetical order) appear before international ones (in alphabetical order) in both the list of bookshops searched with API's, and the list of other bookshops.
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Treatment of colon in simple search
In Libraries Australia basic search, the colon was being treated as a word, and as it was not indexed, no results were being found.
For example, the title Folkloric recording : Anita Hoey performs clap hands rhymes was not being found, despite having been copied and pasted directly from a database record.
The search has been amended so that the colon is no longer treated as a word. This solution has also been extended to other characters which caused the same problem, including the semi-colon and slash (/).
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Re-order database listing in Libraries Australia Search
The order of the databases in the Select Databases screen has been amended, and information about charges for searching included. The RLG databases have now been included with the Subscription databases, as searching of these is now covered under the Libraries Australia subscription.
LAS 2.1.5 (Released 31 May 2006)
New Functionality
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Additional online bookshops
Eighteen new bookshops have been added to the list of online bookshops in Get this item screens. In addition, all the bookshops listed now have descriptions.
Blackwell Online has been added to the bookshops which allow automated follow on searching from Libraries Australia.
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“Back to search results” button on Get this Item screen
A ‘Back to search results’ link had been added to the ‘Get this item’ screen which returns the user to the search results screen.
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Linking to library catalogues
On the “At your library” and “At Other Libraries” screens, linking to libraries catalogues has been extended to some university catalogues. In a previous release of Libraries Australia the searching of library catalogues via these links was piloted for the National Library and State Library catalogues.
Searching is by ISBN/ISSN in the first instance. If there is no ISBN/ISSN, searching is by author/title, or by title only if there is no author.
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Additional search limit for “In Library”
An additional search limit, “In Library”, has been added to the simple and advanced search screens. It limits the search results to material held in Australian libraries, i.e. those with at least one holding.
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Follow on searching of Amazon
In previous releases of Libraries Australia, if an item was not available from Amazon, the Amazon link in the bookshops list was the default link to http://www.amazon.com/
This has been amended for the link to Amazon to include a follow-on search containing the search terms entered by the user. For example, a search for ‘Shakespeare’ which returned a book not found in Amazon now searches the Amazon database for ‘Shakespeare’.
Enhanced Functionality
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Incorrect cover art displaying
When a search by ISBN was being carried out, the search term highlighting on the ISBN in the resulting record was preventing it from being used to search for cover art. Therefore for items with only one ISBN, no cover art was displayed.
The next ISBN on the record was used when records had multiple ISBN’s.
This problem has been resolved.
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Links on bottom of some screens not displaying
Links on the bottom of some screens were disappearing, or were only being partially displayed, for example, advanced search, summary results etc. This problem has been resolved.
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Changes to text for “Get this item”
Some additional text has been added next to the Copies Direct option on the ‘get this item - at bookshops/suppliers’ screen in both the subscription and free services. This text reads: “Please note: Copyright restrictions apply. You may only be able to obtain a copy of part of this item”
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Printing from Get this item screen
When attempting to print the details from the ‘get this item at my library’ or ‘at other libraries’ screen, the details of the item were not being printed.
This problem has been resolved
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Menu wraps when using large fonts
When using large fonts in Internet Explorer, the subscription service tabs wrapped and obscured the top of the ‘links’ and ‘other libraries’ boxes.
This problem has been resolved.
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NBD changed to ANBD and KDD changed to LADD in Search Activity reports
The labels on the detailed search activity report available via LA Admin were incorrect, displaying as NBD and KDD. These have been changed to ANBD and LADD respectively
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Sorting of Record Export Service (RES) files by date
Record Export Service filenames have been changed to the format yyyyMMdd-HHmm to enable them to be correctly sorted on the ftp server, e.g. 20060510-0830, 20060510-1800.
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Changes to record output in RES to fix issues with MARC 066, 082 and holdings
The 066 field, which should contain a 'c' subfield with $1 as the content, was being output in RES and Products files with two unintelligible subfields 'a' and 'b'. These subfields have now been removed.
Multiple 082 tags in records exported via the Record Export Service were being combined to be output as one 082 with multiple $a subfields for each edition of Dewey identified in the $2 subfield. Indicators were being ignored, and there were duplicates in the multiple fields.
This has been amended so that duplicates for each edition are removed, and if any of the tags in a group have a second indicator of 4, the program will insert the second indicator of 4.
When records are sent from LA Cataloguing to LA Search, the holdings creation and holdings update dates ($5 and $9 subfields) on the 850 tag have been removed.
Existing records which had $5 and $9 subfields in the database have been cleaned up and these subfields removed.
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Removal of duplicate records from RES files
Where an organisation had a number of “child” accounts, and records were being collated in the parent organisation’s RES files, there were sometimes duplicate records received. This occurred when users in the different sub-organisations were exporting the same record, and the Record Export Service was checking for duplicates exported by users within the organisation.
RES has been modified to check the files for duplicates by users sharing a NUC. If users within a number of sub-organisations now export the same record, the duplicate with be identified and removed.
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Inclusion of holdings when records are exported using Export Record function
Holdings were not being output on records that were exported using the ‘export’ function in LA Search. This has been amended so that if a record has a holding for the organisation to which the user belongs, (or the nearest NUC or related NUCs, depending on what the organisation has set up as a preference), the holding will be output in the RES file.
LAS 2.1 (Released 21 Feb 2006)
New Functionality
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Sorting of search results has been improved to improve performance for all Libraries Australia users.
First-N sorting allows the first N search results to be sorted more quickly even for very large result sets. The first N results are guaranteed to be in sorted order. As a user pages forward through results, the next N results be sorted. As only the first results are sorted, it is not be possible to quickly move to the end of the sorted result set where the result set size is greater than 10,000 records. This only applies to ANBD records.
Changes include:
- Default sorting is by date of publication, most recent first.
- Ability to sort any sized result set (current limit is result sets < 10,000 records)
- For result sets greater than 10,000 records, the go to end of result set button has been disabled (greyed out)
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Date of publication indexing rules
In order for First-N sorting to work, amendments have been made to the indexing rules for the date of publication index in the LA Search database.
To be a valid date for sorting purposes a date must:
- have 4 characters
- have one or more digits at the beginning of the number
- only have "u"s after the digits; in a valid date, every u is then substituted with a 0 for sorting purposes
- not be 0000
- not start with a number greater than ‘3’
Records with invalid dates appear at the bottom of the sorted results set.
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Cover art for item with ISBN numbers
For records that contain an ISBN, Libraries Australia will create a URL that retrieves a cover art image and displays it in the brief and full results. If no image is returned by the cover art service, then the results and full view screens will remain as is.
Thumbnails of National Library digital images will also display in the summary and target results.
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Yahoo! follow-on search added to summary results screen
A Yahoo! follow-on search had been added to the summary results screen as an alternative option to the existing Google follow-on search.
'Get this item' option available from records in Alerts
The full view of records displayed as a result of following links in emails now provide the options to print, email or get this item. Records which form part of the free service use the free service print, email and getting functionality. For records that are not included in the free service, users are taken to the subscription service login screen when they select the print, email or get this item options.
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Automatic login to free service
Unless users are IP authenticated to the subscription service, or have a scripted login, they will be automatically logged in to the free service when they go to http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/ . The login link will take them to the login screen for the subscription service.
Enhanced Functionality
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Full range of search limits to display for Picture Australia
When Picture Australia is selected as a target database, the full range of search limits available for searching the Australian National Bibliographic Database will be available in basic and Advanced search even though Picture Australia only supports the Australian, Online and Pictures Limits. Any search attempted with a limit that is not supported will result in zero hits being returned by Picture Australia.
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Change to email, print and download screens
When a user selects to email, print or download records, the screens where the format is selected have changed to use radio buttons rather than drop-down lists.
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'Held at' label change
The ‘Held at:’ label on the full view screen has been replaced with ‘Libraries that have this item’
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Get this item 'at other libraries' screen
The expand button on the ‘at other libraries’ screen has been replaced with ‘about this library’ and ‘search catalogue’ options. The ‘about this library’ option provides basic contact details and document delivery information for the library. The ‘search catalogue’ option links to the library’s online catalogue (if the catalogue URL is in the ALG entry for the library).
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New 'At other suppliers' screen
The ‘At other suppliers’ screen has changed to become ‘At bookshops/Suppliers’. The online bookshops list has become part of the screen, listing first bookshops which have been searched and hold the item, followed by the first 5 other bookshops in an alphabetical list, then the other suppliers such as Copies Direct.
Free Service
A freely available version of Libraries Australia containing a subset of the ANBD and restricted functionality has also been released. It contains:
- Only ANBD records which have at least one holding or contain the Australian content indicator.
- ANBD and Picture Australia as searchable databases.
- The simple search interface
- The ability to print and email records as text
- Access to the brief and full view of records
- The ability to get items online, from libraries, Copies Direct and online booksellers
- The ability to search for contact details for Australian libraries
- The new functionality as listed in 2.1 to 2.4 for the subscription service
- Enhancements 3.1 and 3.4 of the subscription service
Links to full view of records from Google search results.
LAS 2.0 (Released 30 Nov 2005)
New Functionality
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New graphic design for Libraries Australia Search
The new graphic design which was developed for Libraries Australia Administration has been implemented in Libraries Australia Search. As part of this change, the tabs have been altered to remove “Command Search” and “Help” to allow room for the “Add Record” tab that is used to access Web Cataloguing.
“Help” is now a top right hand side link and “Command Search” is now available via a link on the “Advanced Search” screen.
Customers with cataloguing access will find a new button on the ‘full’ and ‘librarians’ views. ‘Edit holdings’ enables the addition of your organisation’s holdings to bibliographic records, and the editing and deletion of your existing holdings.
A further button, ‘export’ will be seen by users in organisations that are set up to use the Record Export Service (formerly MARC*Link), and have selected ‘export’ as one of their download triggers. ‘Export’ replaces the Kinetica ‘RMR’ function.
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CJK targets added to Libraries Australia Search and Zgateway
Five CJK targets have been added to the “Select databases” screen in Libraries Australia Search and are also accessible via the Zgateway. Three of these are available to all users - these are: Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Hong Kong.
Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and Waseda University (Tokyo) will be made available to only a small group of users. For more information about access, please contact Libraries Australia.
Zgateway host/port detail
Database |
ZGateway domain name |
Port |
Database name |
Chinese University of Hong Kong |
cuhk.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au |
210 |
Innopac |
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology |
hkust.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au |
210 |
Innopac |
University of Hong Kong |
hku.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au |
210 |
Innopac |
Academia Sinica (Taiwan) |
sinica.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au |
210 |
Innopac |
Waseda University (Tokyo) |
waseda.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au |
210 |
Innopac |
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Common authentication for Libraries Australia Search and Administration
Users who log in to or are IP authenticated against Libraries Australia Search do not need to re-authenticate when they follow a link to Libraries Australia Administration within the same browser. The converse also applies, users authenticated against Libraries Australia Administration do not need to re-authenticate to use Libraries Australia Search.
Enhancements to existing functionality
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Change to Z39.50 ports for TPSDLL customers
This change was first released in Libraries Australia Search release 1.0.11. In this release, two enhancements have been made to the output available on the Zgateway ports 215(Unicode data) and 1822(MARC-8 data):
- A change to include any holdings that match the organisation that the user belongs to as well as any related organisations.
- A change to include the 042 ‘anuc’ code in bibliographic and authority records which was previously stripped. The Library of Congress now list ‘anuc’ (Australian National Union Catalogue) as the official Australian content indicator so it should be included in records.
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MARC-8 output and Greek diacritics
A bug in the software package which is used for converting Unicode data from the Libraries Australia Search database to MARC-8 format for output has been fixed. This affects MARC-8 output from Libraries Australia Search, the Record Export Service, Products and via the Zgateway. The bug concerned encoding of Greek diacritic characters which did not fully conform to MARC-8 specifications.
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MARC-8 output changes to Chinese, Japanese and Korean records.
Several changes to the MARC-8 output of CJK records available via Libraries Australia Search, the Record Export Service, Products and the Zgateway have been made:
1. Leader position 09 is converted to a blank
2. A MARC tag 066, subfield c, containing ‘$1’ is added to indicate character encoding for CJK records. This is deduced from the data itself by looking for the presence of CJK data in the appropriate Unicode character range.
3. '/$1' is added immediately after the $6 linking number in the 880 fields.
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MARC-8 and combining diacritics
The Library of Congress recently made a change to their character mapping table that is included in the software package which is used to convert from Unicode to MARC-8 character encoding in Libraries Australia. The software does not properly handle the new Library of Congress mapping table and has been outputting a '?' for some combining diacritic characters, eg Russian left ligature, via port 1821 (MARC-8) from the Zgateway.
The character mapping file within the software has been edited to use the old Library of Congress character mapping for ligature diacritics. This is acceptable as MARC-8 output is for legacy (pre-Unicode) systems used by Libraries Australia customers. New customer systems will generally support Unicode.
This change has be applied wherever MARC-8 output is available within Libraries Australia, eg via Libraries Australia Search, the Record Export Service, Products and the Zgateway.
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Amended wording on ILL request form
Libraries Australia users are given the option when requesting a loan or copy to select “I only want to borrow this item if it is free”.
Some libraries advised that this was misleading, as users may be exempt from standard ILL fees, but will incur an administration fee at their own library.
The wording on the loan and copy request forms has been amended, and the loan and copy request confirmation emails changed so that it is obvious to users that they may have to pay an administration fee at their own library.
The loan and copy request forms now say:
“I only want to borrow this item if it is free of charge from the supplying library. I accept that I may have to pay an administration fee at my library”
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Links on National Library of Australia digital collection items
NLA records for digital collection items include a thumbnail image of the item on the full view screen. Previously when clicked on, the image link opened in the current browser window. The link now opens in a new browser window.
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Premature alert expiry
In certain instances, alerts close to the planned expiration date were expiring prematurely. This was a bug which has been fixed in Libraries Australia Search version 2.0.
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All 850 subfields are included in output from Libraries Australia Search
When records are downloaded from Libraries Australia Search in 'brief text - all holdings' and 'full text - all holdings' formats, all of the subfields in the 850 (holdings) tag are now included.
In previous releases of Libraries Australia Search information in the $e and subsequent subfields was dropped.
LAS 1.0.11 (Released 28 Sep 2005)
New Functionality
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Link to National Library of Australia and State Library Catalogues
An element of the “Get This Item” functionality now allows users to link through to some local catalogues by clicking on “Request this item from the library’s catalogue”. In the past these links forwarded users through to the home page of the library catalogue where the search terms have to be re-entered. Ideally these links should automatically complete a search of each library catalogue and display the relevant results.
In this release of Libraries Australia, the searching of library catalogues and display of relevant results after clicking on “Request this item from the library’s catalogue” is being piloted with the National Library of Australia, State Library of New South Wales, State library of Queensland, State Library of Western Australia, State Library of South Australia, State Library of Victoria and Northern Territory Library Service catalogues.
The library catalogues are searched by author and title if the record has an author; otherwise by title only.
The National Library, State Library of South Australia, State Library of Victoria, and State Library of Western Australia catalogues can also be searched directly by clicking on the hyperlinked ISBN and ISSN numbers displayed on the “At Other Libraries” screen.
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APAIS ‘pay per view’
Access to APAIS for small libraries on a pay per search basis through Libraries Australia was introduced in May 2005.
It is now possible to link through to the full text of a journal article on a pay per view basis. Clicking on the hyperlink to an article in the search results takes the user to an Informit payment page where credit card details can be entered.
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Two new ZGateway ports for ANBD bibliographic data.
As part of the implementation of stage 2 of the Libraries Australia Redevelopment Project, the TPS-DLL service will no longer be available. Organisations who used the TPS-DLL service can now access data in the format it was available via TPS-DLL through two new ports in the Zgateway.
Ztarget details are:
Hostname: z3950.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au
Database: Bibliographic or ANY; Authority or AU
Port: 1822 (MARC-8 data); 215 (Unicode data)
MARC data accessible through these ports has been modified as follows:
1. 099 data is output in 019 tag;
2. 850 holdings data is output in 984 tag; and
3. All holdings other than those related to the querying library have been removed, ie only the holdings containing the NUC of the organisation that is logged in are output. If the organisation logged in has no NUC, or the organisation does not have holdings on a record, then no holdings are output.
Please contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk if you need assistance with these port changes.
Enhanced Functionality
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title search mapped to APAIS/APAFT title index
In earlier releases of Libraries Australia, a title search for a journal title in APAIS/APAFT returned no results. This is because the title search was only searching the article title index.
The Libraries Australia basic and advanced search have been modified so that a title search against the APAIS/APAFT database is now carried out against both the article and journal title indexes.
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Change to Advanced Search starts-with searches
In earlier releases of Libraries Australia, Advanced Search “starts-with” searches returned the wrong number of records when right truncation was used. For example entering 52? on the Advanced Search screen for a classification “starts-with” search returned only 25 records instead of around 24,000. The ? was being treated as a literal instead of being interpreted as the right truncation operator.
In 1.0.11, this bug has been fixed and the searches have been modified to perform correctly.
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Login link should not open personal login screen
When a user clicks the top right Login link within Libraries Australia, they should be taken to the standard login screen, not the personal login screen. If the user successfully enters a personal account username and password they will be logged in. If the user enters an incorrect password or no password, the personal account login screen will then appear.
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Improved navigation in online help
A link back to the "help index" from each page of the online help has now been included so that users can more easily navigate the online help. When help pages are long or complex, a table of contents has also been included at the top of the help page.
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Alert email sent if no results returned
In previous releases of Libraries Australia, no alert email was sent to users, in an organisation without a NUC symbol, if the search returned zero results. In 1.0.11, an alert email will be sent to users even if their alert query returns no results.
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'Index order on command search screen
On the Command Search screen option, the order of indexes in the “guide me” drop-down lists have been improved. The main search indexes are now listed first - in most commonly used order - followed by the secondary indexes in alphabetical order, followed by all other indexes in alphabetical order
LAS 1.0.10 (Released 15 Jul 2005)
New Functionality
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Personalisation
Currently many existing Libraries Australia User-ID's for Libraries Australia are 'shared accounts' which means that settings apply to everyone using that account. Libraries Australia now has the functionality to allow users to create their own personal account within the shared account.
This will enable individual users, whether end users or library staff, to:
- create a personal account
- choose their own user-id and password
- save records and queries into a personal folder
- specify which search screen will display at login
- customise default databases for searching
- choose up to three libraries as "your library"
You can choose to let individuals use these accounts in addition to:
- set up alerts for regular emailing of new records from a search
- request interlibrary loans
How do I activate personalisation?
Libraries who wish to offer personalisation to allow their staff or patrons to create personal accounts should contact the Help Desk with the following information:
- A list of the Libraries Australia User-ID's that the library wants personal accounts to be created from
- Specify whether personal accounts should enable:
- access pay per search databases (RLG / OCLC / APAIS)
- create alerts
- request interlibrary loans
- access Libraries Australia via the library's internal authentication system or from any internet connected computer
Once an account has been setup to allow the creation of personal accounts, anyone logging into the 'shared account' will see an option to 'create a personal account.' Selecting this option will then enable the user to create their own account for immediate use. Any searching done by this user will appear in Libraries Australia usage reports against the new personal User-ID.
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Examples of different individual accounts.
A University Library requests the following types of personal accounts:
- library staff can access all databases and create alerts.
- interlibrary loan staff can access all databases and request ILLs.
- academics can access all databases, create alerts and request ILLs.
- undergraduates can access the free databases and create alerts. They can not access pay per search databases or request ILLs.
- all individual accounts must be verified through the university's internal authentication system. This may mean that individuals must log on to the university website, go to Libraries Australia, and then log on to their individual account.
A Public Library requests the following types of personal accounts:
- reference staff can access all databases and request ILLs, but can not create alerts.
- library patrons can only access free databases including the ANBD and will have no access to alerts or ILL requesting.
- library patrons can only access personal accounts from within the library's internal authentication system. This may mean that patrons must physically be within the library building to access Libraries Australia.
A Special Library requests the following types of personal accounts:
- library staff can access all databases, create alerts and request ILLs.
- Library patrons can access all databases and create alerts from any internet connected computer.
- Simplified loan and copy request forms for library staff
A new simple loan and copy request form accessible via the "Get This Item" screen has been designed for library staff. The new form is easier to use and does not require the library staff member to enter details such as the user barcode and name. The interlibrary loan form for staff will be mediated using Libraries Australia Document Delivery. If your library is not a member of KDD and you have "enhanced requesting - staff loan" turned on, the email form will go to your ILRS email.
If your library would like to have access to this simple inter-library loan form for staff they should contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk with the user account details.
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National Library users can now order interlibrary loans and copies using Libraries Australia
The National Library of Australia is now offering interlibrary loan services to all of its users. When a user is in the National Library Main Reading Room or the Petherick Reading Room and clicks on 'Request a Loan/Photocopy through your Library', they will be directed to a new Copies Direct - Loans order form (instead of the Libraries Australia Request a Loan form that other users get).
The Copies Direct - Loans order form allows registered users to request and pay for copies and interlibrary loans for use in the Main Reading Room or Petherick Reading Room.
Enhanced Functionality
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Change "Brief view" button to "Results list"
On the Full View and Librarians View screens there was a button labelled "Brief view". The name of this button was confusing to users. This has been replaced with a button labelled "Results list".
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Improvement to Online Limit
The "Online" limit now excludes items that do not have a URL to the electronic version of an item.
The "Online" limit is now defined by the following MARC criteria: Select only those items where at least one $856 is present that meets one of the following criteria:
- 245 $h = [electronic resource] and 856 2nd indicator ! = 2 OR
- 245 $h has any other value and at least one 856 is present which does not consist of any one or combination of the following categories.
i.e. if all the 856's only consist of one or any combinations of the following categories, the record should be excluded from the "Online" category.
Categories of text or address information for exclusion:
$uhttp://www.loc.gov/ (or www.loc.gov)
$http://lcweb.loc.gov/ (or lcweb.loc.gov)
$3Abstracts
$3Book review
Subscrib? - anywhere in the 856 tag
Subscription - anywhere in the 856 tag
Table of contents - anywhere in the 856 tag
Tables of contents - anywhere in the 856 tag
Title page - anywhere in the 856 tag
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URL and APAFT full text links now open a new browser window
When you click on a link from the 856 $u tag (URL link) and APAFT full text links a new browser window will now open.
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New volume/issue/date field added to journal loan request form
A new field has been added to the loan request form for journals. This field allows users to specify which volume/issue/date of a particular journal is required.
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New limit - "Computer Files"
A new limit option for "Computer Files" has been added, defined by the following MARC criteria: Computer Files: Leader 06 = m
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Changes to text on "get this item" screen when there are no holdings
When there are no holdings for an item, there is now some text displayed on the "At Other Libraries" screen stating: "Your library may be able to supply this item from somewhere else, select Request a loan or Request a copy. Select the At Other Suppliers tab to search for the item yourself".
LAS 1.0.9 (Released 31 May 2005)
New Functionality
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New limits on basic and advanced search
A new limit option for large print books has been added. The music limit has been split into two categories: printed music and musical sound.
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Small libraries can now search APAIS through LibrariesAustralia
Small libraries can now search APAIS through Libraries Australia and pay only for the searches they do. APAIS is the Australian Public Affairs Information Service, an online index to scholarly articles published in Australia since 1978 in the social sciences and humanities. Small libraries can search APAIS through LibrariesAustralia at a cost of $2.80 per search. Libraries Australia will bill each library and track usage of APAIS with regular reports. For the purpose of this offer, a small library is located in Australia and a member of LibrariesAustralia. The term “small library” does not include academic libraries, state libraries, the National Library or any of the libraries who are part of NSW.Net. Future versions of LibrariesAustralia will allow users to access the full text of APAIS articles. For now, users can order a copy or borrow APAIS articles using ‘Get this item’. The APAIS search through Libraries Australia searches on article titles not journal titles.
Enhanced Functionality
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Select all
The results lists now have an option to “Select all” results on the current page. Please note that the “Select all” button applies to the current page, while “Deselect all” applies to all pages. You can select up to 100 items per page by choosing “Show all” from the Summary Results page. Click on the first drop down box and choose “100” per page and then click “Go”. Then click on the “Select all” button.
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Improved accessibility of tab menus
People with disabilities have improved access to the tab menu. It is easier to see which section of LibrariesAustralia you are working on as the tab now changes to white.
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Notifying users that limits are on
Users can select limits on the basic or advanced search screens (eg. Australian, online, books, pictures). When the user returns to the search screen after setting the limits they are notified with a text message in red that “limits are on”.
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Improved Boolean searching
Boolean searches, AND, OR and NOT (-), are applied to all fields searched (eg. Title, subject, notes) from the simple search screen.
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Records are saved in display order when sorted
Sorted results are saved in the sort order as long as the records are all saved at the same time. If sorted records are saved in batches then each batch will be held separately in sorted order with the last batch saved appearing first. Users who wish to save sorted records in order from multiple pages need to select all the desired records before saving. Users can select up to 100 records per page.
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Improved error messages
Error Message |
Meaning |
Solution |
The operation timed out |
Due to a large results set, the retrieval of results has taken too long and has timed out. |
Narrow the search term so that the results set is smaller. |
Unable to retrieve the selected record(s) due to a system error. Permanent system error. |
There is a system error within Libraries Australia. |
Contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk Ph: 1800 026 155 The Libraries Australia Help Desk will arrange to fix the system error. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Error transforming UTF-16 encoded string to 8-bit ASCII: the source string contains a code point, '0x0142', that is greater than 0xFF and is therefore not a legal 8-bit ASCII character. |
The user has entered a term that cannot be searched by a remote database (i.e.: a diacritic character eg. Stanisław) |
Some of the remote databases are unable to read diacritic characters. Select a remote database which is able to read diacritic characters or substitute another letter or combination of letters, e.g. œ use oe. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Illegal term value ‘:illegal term value for attribute’ for attribute |
The user has entered a term that cannot be searched against a particular attribute by a remote database. (Eg. Including “the” in a Title search) |
Check the terms that have been entered into the search box. Try using an alternate search term. Try using alternative spelling. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Query type not supported. |
The database may not support a particular proximity symbol. The proximity symbols can vary for each database. |
Check the help manual to find the correct proximity symbols for each database. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Truncated words too short. |
The truncated search terms entered are too short. For example, a search term in CJK can be no shorter than 3 characters. |
Enter the full search term. Try truncating an alternate search term. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Unable to connect to the remote host ‘rlg.Libraries Australia.nla.gov.au:210’: Connection refused |
Libraries Australia cannot connect to a remote database, eg. RLG |
Contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk Ph: 1800 026 155 The Libraries Australia Help Desk can check why the connection to remote databases has been refused. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Unable to connect to the Z39.50 server. |
Libraries Australia cannot connect to the Z39.50 server. |
Contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk. Ph: 1800 026 155 The Libraries Australia Help Desk can check the Z39.50 connection. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Unexpected end-of-file from 'rlg.Libraries Australia.nla.gov.au:210' |
Libraries Australia cannot connect to a remote database, eg. RLG |
Contact the Libraries Australia Help Desk Ph: 1800 026 155 The Libraries Australia Help Desk can check the connection between individual databases and Libraries Australia. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Unsupported Relation attribute. |
The database may not support a particular relational attribute. |
Check the help manual to find the supported relational attributes for each database. |
Unable to search the database due to a system error. Unsupported Truncation attribute ‘104:unsupported truncation attribute’ |
The database may not support a particular wildcard truncation symbol. The truncation symbols can vary for each database. |
Check the help manual to find the correct truncation symbols for each database. |
LAS 1.0.8 (Released 28 Apr 2005)
New Functionality
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Emailing and downloading MARC records from Libraries Australia in MARC-8 as well as Unicode UTF-8
Users are now able to email and download MARC records from Libraries Australia in MARC-8 encoding as well as Unicode UTF-8 encoding. Unicode UTF-8 is the encoding used to display Chinese Japanese and Korean characters in Libraries Australia.
It is recommended that users use Internet Explorer 5.5+ as their browser to display CJK characters in Libraries Australia. In the IE toolbar, simply click on View - Encoding - Unicode (UTF-8) In Netscape, click on View - Character coding - Unicode (UTF-8).
If Asian characters appear as boxes in downloaded CJK records, to view them you will need a unicode font that has the relevant characters.

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New option to print, email, download and save
Users are now able to print, email, download and save a record from the full view and librarian's view screens in Libraries Australia. These options operate on a single record only, that is on the record being viewed. They are conveniently located at the top and bottom of the screen prefaced by the text: "For this record".
Users of Libraries Australia can continue to print, email, download and save multiple records by selecting the checkboxes on the brief results page and clicking on these options at the top of the screen.
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Links from Authority to Bibliographic databases
It is now easier to find all occurrences of a particular heading from the authority database in the corresponding bibliographic database. After searching an authority database in Libraries Australia, users can now follow a link on the full view screen that searches the corresponding bibliographic database for that heading. This applies to the Libraries Australia Authorities database which links to the ANBD as well as the RLG Name and Subject databases which link to the RLG Union Catalogue.
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Alert creation for organisations without a NUC
Organisations without a National Union Catalogue (NUC) symbol can now create alerts, provided they have been authorised to do so by the account administrator of that organisation.
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COPAC - a new database for searching
The Consortium of [British] University Research Libraries (CURL) OPAC is now available for searching through Libraries Australia as a free target. Use the "Select databases" screen to select the COPAC target for searching. COPAC is a union catalogue, providing access to the merged online catalogues of members of the Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL) in the British Isles. There are over 31 million records on COPAC with holdings from over 27 institutions including the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru.
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ARROW - a new database for searching
The ARROW National Discovery Service is now available for searching through Libraries Australia as a free target. Use the "Select databases" screen to select the ARROW target for searching. ARROW is a database of Australian Academic research which has been deposited into individual repositories at universities, the National Library of Australia and other research agencies such as Australian Policy Online. Use ARROW to find all of the works by a researcher (even if they have moved universities), or a topic of research (from its beginnings to the current day), or the combined output of a consortium of universities.
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Tips for searching ARROW
The following Command searches are unsupported in ARROW: Name (NA) and TI (Title). Name exact (NX), Name Keyword (NW), Title Exact (TX) and Title Keyword (TW) all return results.
When searching authors, leaving out the comma will return results, e.g. smith heather OR including the comma and placing the search terms in quotes will return results, e.g. "smith, heather"
Enhanced Functionality
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Double dashes added to Libraries Australia Authorities Subject Index
Librarians traditionally use a double dash "- -" (or as a long dash if your system allows long dashes, eg. Blue Mountains (N.S.W. : Mountains - Guidebooks) to separate subjects when displaying subject headings from an Authority or Bibliographic database. Double dashes have been added to the Libraries Australia Authorities Subject index before every occurrence of subfields $t, $v, $x, $y, $z. Subject headings displayed in the Bibliographic and Authority databases now match and browsing subject headings is easier with double dashes improving readability.
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Non-filing characters no longer need to be entered when doing "starts with" or "exact match" searches
Certain fields within MARC records include a "non-filing" indicator that shows how many characters to ignore when sorting or searching. Non-filing characters are articles that occur at the beginning of a field, for example "The" (4 characters) or "A" (2 characters) in English or "La" (3 characters) in French. In release 1.08 the following indexes have been re-created to remove the non-filing characters. Non-filing characters no longer need to be entered when doing "starts with" or "exact match" searches.
Until release 1.08, the ANBD and Libraries Australia Authorities database included the non-filing characters in indexes like title which meant that users of Libraries Australia and the Libraries Australia Z39.50 service had to include the non-filing characters in order for "starts-with" and "exact match" searches to work.
| Bibliographic | TI | Title | 130, 730, 740 (indicator 1); 240, 242, 243, 245, 440 and 830 (indicator 2) |
| TX | Title Exact | 130, 730, 740 (indicator 1); 240, 242, 243, 245, 440 and 830 (indicator 2) | |
| SE | Series | 440, 830 (indicator 2) | |
| ST | Series Exact | 440, 830 (indicator 2) | |
| KT | Key Title | 222 (indicator 2) | |
| SU | Subject Heading | 630 (indicator 1) | |
| SX | Subject Heading Exact | 630 (indicator 1) | |
| Authority | TI | Title | 130 430, 530 (Indicator 2) |
| TX | Title Exact | 130 430, 530 (Indicator 2) | |
| SU | Subject Heading | 130, 430, 530 (Indicator 2) | |
| SX | Subject Heading Exact | 130, 430, 530 (Indicator 2) |
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Following on from subject searches
Subject headings are hyperlinked on the full view screen. The follow-on searches performed when users follow these links now includes the $2 subfield so that related records with that subject heading are now included in results.
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ILL request form - The journal or title or issue fields on the form are now mandatory
The Libraries Australia Document Delivery (KDD) user group suggested this enhancement. To prevent requests being sent from Libraries Australia to KDD with insufficient information to identify the item, at least one of the journal, title or issue fields on the form are now mandatory.
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Selecting multiple states using "where held" on Advanced Search screen
The "where held" feature of the Advanced Search screen has been re-designed as a set of checkboxes, one for each state. Users can choose to search the holdings for multiple states by selecting one or more checkboxes.
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Searching on city names
Users can now search on city names as well as state and country names or codes through the CTY place of publication index, e.g. Sydney.
Before 1.0.8 users of Libraries Australia were able to search by country or state name or code but not city. In release 1.0.8 text from the MARC field 260$a has been added to the CTY index. 260$a often contains city names which should be included in the place of publication index.
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Entering multiple email addresses for alerts
Multiple email addresses can be placed in the email address fields when creating an alert. Email addresses need to be separated by a delimiter which is a semi-colon (;) or a comma (,). Alert results will be sent to each email address listed.
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Exporting records to bibliography management packages
Libraries Australia users can email and download records for import into bibliography management packages such as EndNote or ProCite. Choose the RIS format when emailing or downloading records for import into bibliography management packages. The RIS export format has been modified to include all authors in the A1 field..
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"Online" limit now eliminates items that do not have a URL to the actual online resource
The "online" limit in Libraries Australia has been modified to eliminate, as far as possible, items returned that do not have a URL to the actual online resource. The new online limit is based on the URM (UR: Material Type) index which is set to the value "online" if the record contains the 856 MARC tag and does not contain a subfield $3 equal to Tables of contents, Sample of text, Publisher description and Contributor biographical information.. Currently about 480,000 records in the Bibliographic database are flagged as being online.
The "online" limit in libraries Australia has been modified to eliminate, as far as possible, items returned that do not have a link to the actual online resource or to a related item. It should exclude records where the online link is to Tables of contents, Samples of text and Publishers descriptions, depending on how they have been coded in the record.
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Term hits in results are now in bold and red
Term hits in results are now highlighted in bold and red so they are more obvious to users, particularly users with a colour deficiency which studies suggest include about 10% of the male population.
LAS 1.0.7 (Released 2 Mar 2005)
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Add limit "Not in my library" to Advanced Search screen.
Users are now able to limit a search for resources that are not held in their library with a single tick box ("not in my library") on the Advanced Search screen, in the same way they can currently limit a search to "in my library".
If user has selected both checkboxes when the search button is pressed, an error is displayed: "Only one 'my library' option can be selected."
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Ability to set default databases and search screen
Libraries are now able to specify for each of their user accounts:
- the default databases to be selected when the user logs on
- the default search page to appear when the user logs on (Search, Advanced Search or Command Search).
Currently the default databases for all user accounts are "Australian Library Collections" and "Picture Australia" (and "APAFT" for InformationAustralia pilot libraries). If a library wants something different for a particular account, they need to request it.
Currently the default search screen for all user accounts is the "Search" screen. If a library wants something different for a particular account, they need to request it.
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Open a new window
A new window will now open when accessing ALG, ILRS, CISTI, Infotrieve, online bookshops and printer-friendly versions of records.
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Series linking
The hyperlink has been confined to the series title (eg 440$a) and does not include the volume number ($v). It executes a starts-with query. All resources in a series will now display, regardless of volume.
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Displayed query incorrect
The query displayed on the search results screen is now correct. It also uses brackets () to indicate the order the query is processed in. eg. ( Australian and Government ) AND ( Books or Journals ).
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Get This Item Online screen - do not display 856 $a
The 856 $a is no longer displayed on the "Get This Item Online" screen
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Wrap 856 $u URLs
An 856 $u URL is now wrapped after 80 characters to prevent horizontal scrolling. This applies to the search results screens, Full Record View and Librarians View screens.
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Archive alert data
Alerts are deleted from Libraries Australia three months after they expire. To allow reports to be produced on the number of alerts created per month (for instance), data on all alerts needs to be kept, even after they are deleted.
Alert records will be duplicated in an alert archive when the alert is created.
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Change default record syntax for ANBD Ztarget to MARC21
The default record syntax for Libraries Australia Z39.50 server is now MARC21. This change has been applied to both the Bibliographic and Authority databases
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Limit checkboxes for searching SNUC and Te Puna
If you select the Singapore National Union Catalogue (SNUC) or Te Puna for searching, then the tick-box limits Maps, Pictures, Oral Histories, Music and Manuscripts appear on the Search and Advanced search screens. If you select any of these limits and do a search, an error occurs.
SNUC and Te Puna searches fail because they do not appear to support the MAT index. The system has therefore been changed so that the tick-box limits do not appear for SNUC and Te Puna.
Libraries Australia Document Delivery (LADD) Release Notes
LADD 3.2.1 (Released 18 Nov 2008) - Current Version
(
Download pdf)
These notes refer to VDX 3.2.1, the Libraries Australia Document Delivery production service and are valid as of the 18th November 2008.
Libraries Australia Document Delivery Browser Compatibility - Supported Browsers
Differences between VDX 2.7.4 and VDX 3.2.1
- Item Formats – called ‘material type’ in the 2.7.4 version, there were three ‘item formats’ available – monograph, serial and other. Changes in the 3.2.1 version include ‘book’ replacing ‘monograph’ and ‘serial’ being replaced by ‘print journal’, ‘e journal’ and ‘article online’. The most commonly used item formats will appear. Instead of entering ‘other’ you are now able to select for example ‘CD-ROM’ or ‘Computer File’. If your requested item Format is not available, the value of ‘other’ will appear. When conducting a request from a Bib Search the appropriate Item Format will be defaulted. The updated list of Item Formats is now also available on the ILL Request Search Screen.
- Pop-up Calendars – there are pop-up calendars associated with date fields within nine actions: Received (Local Due Date field), Request, Renew, Renew Answer Yes, Answer Conditional, Answer Retry, Answer Will Supply, Answer Hold and Shipped.
- Due date mandatory when shipping a loan - the new functionality will not allow you to ‘ship’ a loan item unless a due date has been entered. You can enter a due date either manually (as in 2.7.4) or via the pop-up calendar.
- Action drop-down menu – in VDX 3.2.1 there is a drop-down list of available actions on each record in the ILL Request Screen, brief request display. You can select the required action from the brief display, then click on the action button and the system goes directly to the action-details screen. It is no longer necessary to go to an intermediate action selection screen as in the VDX 2.7.4 version.
- Reports – in 3.2.1 the layout has been simplified. Reports are no longer numbered but are arranged alphabetically.
- ISBN searching - the code that handles the truncation of ISBNs by removal of extraneous data (such as book format or price) has been modified so that it no longer assumes that ISBNs are 10 digits in length.
- Simple request search on non-numeric TGQs – users are now able to search on requests that have non-numeric TGQs (for example requests from Relais locations). The 2.7.4 Simple Search screen did not allow for nonnumeric TGQ searches.
Known Issues in VDX 3.2.1
- Bug: If a user selects the value ‘shipped’ from the action drop-down they are taken to the ‘ILL Request Action: Shipped’ screen, which by-passes the ‘ILL Request Documents’ screen to attach documents via the DocStore. If a user selects the Results hyperlink to begin this process again the Action drop-down values are not present.
Workaround: If the user wants to attach a document via DocStore, instead of selecting the ‘shipped’ value from the Action drop-down, the user clicks on the ‘Add’ button. This takes the user directly to the ILL Request: Documents screen for attaching documents.
- Bug: An intermittent issue concerns incoming ISO ILL copy non returnable requests displaying the format as Article Printed or Government Publication rather than Serial.
Workaround: As this is an intermittent issue and does not affect the lifecycle of the request, this bug will be monitored and further advice will be given as necessary.
- Bug: Users are able to manually set a date in the past in the answer date fields when responding to requests. This is only possible when manually entering a date. When the popup calendar is enabled users are only able to select a date in the future.
Workaround: The pop-up calendar ensures that the date selected will always be in the future. This method is recommended to ensure that the correct date is always selected.
- Bug: When creating a copy non returnable request, if the ‘reset’ button is hit before the request is submitted the copyright field values do not auto-populate.
Workaround: If the copyright field defaults are blank (the values still appear in the drop-down boxes) if the user select the Rota tab and then back to the Main tab the copyright fields will appear when the service type of copy non returnable is selected.
LADD 2.7.4 (Released 4 Sep 2006)
These notes refer to VDX 2.7.4, the Libraries Australia Document Delivery production service and are valid as of the 4th September 2006.
Libraries Australia Document Delivery Browser Compatibility - Supported Browsers
Differences between VDX 2.3.3 and VDX 2.7.4
- Work Queues – A new function in VDX to allow users to view (and access) a summary of their ILL activities.
- Document Store – Libraries Australia Document Delivery now offers an electronic document store, allowing responders to place electronic copes of documents in a secure storage area within Libraries Australia Document Delivery. The Requester can retrieve the document from the document store.
- Reports – a number of ‘standard’ reports have changed. The Libraries Australia Document Delivery specific reports (numbered 01-15 remain the same)
- Own Services – Users are now able to configure their own ILL services based on responders (eg reciprocal agreements). This is accessed via Location>Own Services.
- Branding – The ‘look and feel’ of Libraries Australia Document Delivery has changed.
Known Issues in VDX 2.7.4
- Bug: The Note Types: ‘Send No’ and ‘Client Instr’ get sent to the second and subsequent responders (but not the first).
Workaround: None
- Bug: Reset button on the Shipping screen does not reset cost.
Workaround: Add the new value to Base Cost field and click on the ‘Recalc Cost’ button. Make other required changes to the Shipping screen.
- Bug: Refinement not possible when you first log in.
Workaround: Select a different Profile, then re-select the original (eg Australasian) Profile.
Libraries Australia Cataloguing System Release Notes
LACS 4.1 (Released 1 Dec 2008) - Current Version
These release notes refer to Libraries Australia Cataloguing System (CBS) version 4.1 to be used against the Production and Training Environments and are valid as of the 1st December 2008.
New Functionality
- Transmission of bibliographic records and holdings to WorldCat using SRU Update
- Receipt of OCLC Identifiers from WorldCat via SRU Update and their insertion in bibliographic records
- Receipt of bibliographic records via SRU Update
- Display of the search string on the brief results presentation screen
- Improvements to the level of support for Unicode in match/merge
- Improved support for right to left scripts
LACS 3.2 (Released 19 Nov 2007)
(
Download pdf)
These release notes refer to Libraries Australia Cataloguing System (CBS) version 3.2 to be used against the Production and Training Environments and are valid as of the 19th November 2007.
New Functionality
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Access to External Z39.50 Target Databases in Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client
The following remote bibliographic databases can now be accessed via a broadcast search from the Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client, and records imported into the ANBD:
- Library of Congress Catalogue
- OCLC WorldCat
- Singapore National Union Catalogue
- Te Puna (New Zealand National Union Catalogue)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong
- University of Hong Kong
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Due to incompatibility between the CBS and Innopac servers, there is a limit on the number of search terms that should be entered for successful Title Keyword, Name Keyword and Subject Keyword searches in the Hong Kong databases.
To successfully import records to the ANBD following a search of external Z39.50 targets via the Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client and to add the ANBD and External Databases buttons to your toolbar, it is necessary to replace the following files in the %systemdrive%:\Program Files\LACC\ Scripts folder of your Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client (WinIBW):
- General_BIB.ttl
- General_AUTH.ttl
- Standard_nla.js
The updated files can be downloaded from: http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/cataloguing/update.html
Note that in the Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client, as an alternative to using the ANBD and External Databases buttons, you can enter commands in the command bar. To go to the broadcast search screen for external databases, type ext f. To go to the ANBD, type fil 1.1
The OCLC Authorities database will be added as a target in a future release.
Note that, depending on your workflow preferences, you may continue to import records from remote databases via the Web cataloguing interface in Libraries Australia Search.
For further information on how to search and import records from external database targets please see the updated section 4.3.3.6 and Appendix 7 in the Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client Manual http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/manuals.html#client
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Automatic Transliteration of Chinese Script
Automatic transliteration (Romanisation) of Chinese script is now available in the Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client. When your record is in Edit mode, enter a field containing Chinese script and a corresponding empty Roman field, and then click on the Transliterate button to populate the Roman script field.
245 1#$602$7cjk$a@中国古代教育精粹的现代解读
245 1#$602$7ba
For details on searching and importing records from external Z39.50 target databases and using the Chinese transliteration functionality, see the updated section 4.3.3.7 of the Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client Manual http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/manuals.html#client
Enhanced Functionality
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Single sign-on via WebCat
Previously Libraries Australia users who wished to use the web cataloguing functionality in Libraries Australia Search (adding, editing or deleting holdings, adding a new record, importing a record from an external database) were required to authenticate again to CBS at the start of each session. Now a single signon is supported, which means that you are automatically authenticated to CBS if you have already entered your user name and password to log on to Libraries Australia Search.
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Database management improvement
Release 3.2 also provides important database management functionality which will enable Libraries Australia staff to improve the quality of the Australian National Bibliographic Database in the coming year, especially in the removal of duplicate records.
Other
You will see a "Request" button appearing on the Brief and Full record display screens, and the Search History screen, in the Cataloguing Client. This button relates to the CBS ILL module which is not used by Libraries Australia. If you click on this button, you will receive an error message. However your Cataloguing Client session will operate normally. This button will be removed as soon as possible.
The "Open Databases" button located on the Cataloguing Client toolbar is now redundant. Instead, use the External Databases button to access external Z39.50 targets. The instructions on how to remove the "Open Databases" button are located here.
Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client
LACC 3.0.81.35 (Released 30 Nov 2005) - Current Version
These release notes refer to Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client (Win IBW) version 3.0.81.35 to be used against the Production and Training Environments and are valid as of the 30th November 2005.
Functionality not yet implemented
- Access to External z39.50 target databases.
- Automatic Transliteration of Chinese script.
- Statistics via Libraries Australia Client not available (Statistics are available via Libraries Australia Admin).
These functions are available in the latest version of the client. Information about updating the client can be found here.
-
Using ‘Help’ Command Button while editing a record
If creating or editing a record, use of the ‘Help’ Button via the Command Bar will result in changes to the record being lost. If editing an existing record, editing of the record prior to the ‘Help’ Button being clicked will not be saved.
Workaround: Type the command ‘HELP’ in the command line. This launches the Help screen in a new window. Note: The help available via the command line is for LA Client help, not Cataloguing help. Press the ‘F1’ key to access Cataloguing help.
-
cataloguing source
When clicking on 'cataloguing source' in the client, the client fills in the tag as follows:
040 ## $aNUC$cNUC
It's up to the cataloguer to delete "NUC" and put in their own NUC symbol.
-
C0B error while cloning a record
After cloning a record which has your holdings on it, you may get the following at the bottom of the new record:
C0B 11-05-05 00:00:00.000
This is a bug. You can't save the record while this is here, so it should be deleted. This fault is under currently under investigation.
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Holdings
When creating or editing holdings, a number of Pica specific tags are visible (examples in bold below). These tags should not be changed, as they are for internal database use only.
e01 $a18-11-05$b?
850 ##$aANL$cn.123
C0A 18-11-05
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CJK- decomposition of characters
Some Japanese and Korean script characters will not be output correctly in records received from the Libraries Australia Record Export Service. In Korean hangul will be decomposed into its component jamo, and in Japanese there will be a space between kana and the diacritics added to kana to produce voiced sounds (nigori).
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Scripted login
Scripted login causes error messages to not display. Until a resolution is found, the use of scripted login is not recommended.
-
Holdings Indicators
In the brief display, Records with attached Holdings are displayed with a ‘+’ in the Record Type column, regardless of if they belong to your institution or other institutions.
-
Validation
A number of Coded Data values return Pica internal codes in some error messages. The table below lists the MARC tag and character position and the Pica internal code displayed. More Marc to Pica codes can be found here.
MARC Tag/position |
Pica Code in error message |
Ldr/17 (Encoding Level) |
002 |
008/06 (Type of Date) |
009 |
008/07-10 (Date 1) |
009 |
008/11-14 (Date 2) |
009 |
008/15-17 (Place of Publication) |
04B |
008/35-37 (Language of Text) |
04A |
006 Books |
00F |
006 Computer Files |
00G |
006 Maps |
00H |
006 Mixed Materials |
00J |
006 Music |
00K |
006 Continuing Resources |
00L |
006 Visual Materials |
00M |
Example Error Message1: “Tag 04B with only indicators is not allowed”
Solution: Add a value to 008/15-17 (Place of Publication)Example Error Message2: “Tag 002 has incorrect content”
Solution: Add a value to Ldr/17 (Encoding Level)Example Error Message 3: “00F with only indicators is not allowed”
Solution: Add content to 006 Books
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Special Characters Toolbar
Viewing the Special Characters toolbar resets scripted function toolbars. If you have re-organised the toolbars, and then open then close the Special Characters (View>Special Characters), the toolbars will be ‘re-organised’ when you next re-open the Client.
-
Find and Replace Text
In Edit mode, Find/Replace Text does not operate if ‘Match Whole Word’ is selected.
-
Indexes
DAT (Date of publication) ‘<’ and ‘>’ range operators do not work, all results are returned as if an ‘=’ operator has been used. The YOP (Year of Publication) index can be used if range operators other than ‘=’ are required.
-
Incorrectly migrated subfields
A number of 811 and 111 tags have been migrated with three indicators (an extra blank ‘#’ indicator). These records will be fixed by a global replace.
Workaround: If users edit a record containing these tags, they are requested to delete the extra indicator.
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Personal Templates
Do not use two colons in the title (eg 'My template : book : with holdings'). The template will save, but accessing the template will cause the Client to freeze.

