Searching Procedures in ALEPH

 

It is important to perform thorough searching in ALEPH in order to prevent duplication of materials owned by the University of Florida Libraries. Members of the Collection Management Support Unit all work under the same comprehensive guidelines in order to prevent unnecessary expenditure of funds.  A minimum of two searches is required (unless you obtain a duplicate entry on the first search indicating that the libraries own the item).

Basic Searching

Open the ALEPH Search Module. Click on the Catalog Box (Browse) Search icon.  Using the drop-down menu there are two excellent searching tools:

Title (WTI): This search is for the primary title as well as series titles.  Highlight "Titles".  Type the title to be searched.  Do not include articles at the beginning of the title.  Refer to the list of "Definite and Indefinite Articles in Some Foreign Languages" when searching titles in foreign languages.

Author (WAU): Highlight "Author".  Type the author's name (last name followed by first name).  Refer to the "Additional Searching" section below if the author has a double last name or there is more than one author listed.

**If a series title is provided, see "Series Searching" procedures below.

A third searching tool that may be used if the title or author is not provided is a keyword search.  Click on the Binoculars (Find) Search icon.

Keywords Anywhere (WRD):  Type keywords from the title.  Do not include articles.

     

Series Searching

 

Objective : To find when an order is on Standing Order, Monographic series, or any other record where all received items are recorded on 1 record.

 

Example : Best of Newspaper Design

 

• Open the ALEPH Search Module. 

• Use Browse (Card Catalog) search, highlight Titles, and enter the name of the title.  

• The second entry should be the item being searched.  Highlight this title, and then hit "Brief List" to show list of titles.  Next highlight the most recent date and click "Add to Nav. Map." 

• At the "Navigation window", click on the plus (+) sign to expand the record, if needed, until the "order info" appears. The record will be highlighted in gray.  If there is a recent order for that record, an "Order Number" will appear.  Click on "Order Number" to see the status of the item. 

• In the field data column, interpret the "Order Type" and "Order Status" codes.

 

 

ALEPH CODES                               

 

Order Type                                           Order Status

O=monographic series                          SV=sent to vendor

S=serial                                                   CLS=closed

M=monograph                                                                 

 

**If the order type shows O and the order status shows SV, then there is a standing order.

 

 

Verifying Volume/Item Holdings Information

Using the Search module, select the title and click on the "Full" button.  Then click on the "Add to Nav. Map" button.  The Navigation Window will open.  There are several ways to determine the status of an item and to find the volume holdings information. 

The "Catalog HOL" button will give item status information.  Click on the "Catalog HOL" button.  You will be directed to the Catalog module.  There will be a "Holding List" window where you may select a record in the lower pane.  Once the desired record is selected, click on the "Edit" button.  The window that pops open will give status information such as: lost, withdrawn, on order, etc.

The "Items" button will give volume holdings information.  Click on the "Items" button.  You will be directed to the Items module.  There will be two windows that open up.  The window in the foreground will list the volumes owned at each location.  This list will not always include all volumes owned by the UF libraries. 

Volume holdings can also be checked from the Navigation Window. 

 

Additional Searching

In certain cases additional searching is necessary to avoid duplication of materials.  When the item is part of a monographic series, if the author has a double last name or if the title is expressed in two languages, an additional search is required.

 

• Monographic series

If the item is part of a monographic series then an additional search is required.  If the item is part of a larger series (ex. multi-volume set) that the libraries are receiving automatically on "standing order" it would be a duplication if ordered. The searching method is the same as in a title search.

 

Example:   Use the Browse search,

      Title (WTI)=Cambridge studies in linguistics

 

• If the author has a double last name it is best to search the name two ways.

 Example:   Use the Browse search, highlight Author, type the author's name the first way and then try the search typing the author's name the second way.

                    

        Author (WAU)=garcia marquez gabriel

and                                             

        Author (WAU)=marquez gabriel garcia

 

• For difficult items in which the title and author are problematic or the information is incomplete another search should be performed using the ISBN number.

 

Example:  Use the Browse search, highlight ISBN, and type the 13-digit ISBN number.

              ISBN (ISBN)=1556554141886

 

*Paperback and hardback ISBN numbers for the same item are different.

• If there is more than one author or editor, each additional person should be searched.

• If a title is in two different languages then a search in both languages is necessary. 

• If a title and author are both "common" ex. Smith, John or "The Complete Works" a search in the public mode (UF Library Catalog) using keywords helps.  In this case the key words would be Smith and Complete or Smith and Works.

 

*The public mode may give an incomplete or unreliable record so it should be used only as an additional search (ex. volume holdings).