Transcript Bard Collection

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PART I (Dennis)
Description of the Cecilia Bard Multicultural Library for
Peace, previous Web display solutions, finding Mike
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PART II (Michael)
Former SQL solution, discussion of X-Server solution,
evaluation of the final product
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PART III (Marianne)
A catalog librarian’s notes on preparing item records in
the OPAC, with a little help from our friends at
SUNY-OLIS
PART I
Description of the Cecilia Bard Multicultural
Library for Peace; previous Web display
solutions; finding Michael
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Books donated by BSC professors Dr.
Geraldine Bard and Dr. Betty Cappella in 2000
In memory of Dr. Bard’s mother, Cecilia
Initial donation about 300 books; now 3,508
Ongoing collection, with several hundred
books added each year in 2-3 “lots”
Themes of multiculturalism and diversity,
divided into children and adult categories
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Because located throughout the library, a
condition of the donation was that: “Books will
be given a virtual space on a Web page
devoted to the collection”
How do we provide the required “virtual
space”?
2000-2003, a list of “Bard Books” was prepared by
a librarian, and hand-coded by a student
assistant for publication to the Web page:
Looked fine, but was labor-intensive.
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As collection size grew, we were eager for an
automated solution
We reached out to Andrew Perry at OLIS for
help
His server-side SQL solution worked
wonderfully from 2003-2008
(more on that later from Mike)
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In 2008, changes to SUNY/OLIS customization
policy present an opportunity
Submitted a Footprints for a read-only Oracle
account
Maureen Zajkowski suggested using
something called the “X-Layer” in Aleph
Michael Curtis is reputed to be the go-to guy
on the X-Layer
PART II
Former SQL solution in more detail; discussion
of X-Server solution; evaluation of the final
product
Project requirements
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Narrow scope, only Bard collection items
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Emphasize browsing, not searching
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Various topic/audience categories are used
Collection changes: refresh or update
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The past process
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SUNYConnect server side
SQL query & extraction of data
Based on 'internal note', tab3 on Aleph item
Metadata based on z15, basic title, author, pub date
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Possible X-Server process
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Buffalo State server side
Aleph CCL query
Can't match 'internal note' but can search other fields
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Subject, other MaRC fields
Collection code, some other item fields
Metadata extracted from complete MaRC record
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Usually more metadata than z15 table
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Small set of files loaded on Buffalo server:
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PHP scripts to
 talk to Aleph server
 pull & process data
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CSS file to add style to HTML
A blank book cover file
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PHP script “bard.php” is the main Web page
User selects search terms from menu or types
in a search box
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After the ‘display’ button is clicked, a properly
formed CCL search is inserted in the URL
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When bard.php has a CCL request, in the
‘background’ it pulls data from Aleph x-server
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Two x-server requests from Buffalo to Aleph
are required to pull item data
“Find” runs a search
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http://saranac.sunyconnect.suny.edu:4380/X?
op=find&base=bsc01&request=WSU%3D%22Bard%20
children%20Russian%22
“Present” gets a set of item data
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http://saranac.sunyconnect.suny.edu:4380/X?
op=present&set_no=001157&set_entry=00000000
1-000000005&format=marc
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Aleph x-server returns MaRC XML (yuck!)
Catalogers: notice MaRC field numbers, indicators, and
subfields in XML elements (and you thought you didn’t
understand XML!)
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PHP script “search.php” chews up XML and spits out HTML
“pagination.class.php” paginates results
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Final product
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Simple/browsable interface
Always up-to-date
Access to SUNYConnect server not required
Rich metadata
Local styling using CSS
PHP could be customized by the library
http://library.buffalostate.edu/collections/bard.php
PART III
A catalog librarian’s notes on preparing item
records in the OPAC, with a little help from
our friends at SUNY-OLIS
DEMONSTRATION
THANK YOU
Any questions?