A to Z of OPACs

While exploring the documentation of the library catalog at Washington University, in my quest to become a power user of the system, I was surprised to read this:

Search tip: If you wish to retrieve titles beginning with the word 'a,' 'an,' or 'the,' which are normally considered to be initial articles, (e.g., the title "A to Z, the Alphabet"), type the initial article twice when performing the search. For example, entering "A A TO Z, the Alphabet" will search for the desired title. Use this method to search for titles beginning with the German 'an' and the French, Spanish, and Italian 'a.'

Sure enough, a title search on A to Z brings up titles that begin "To Z," the first three really are A to Z titles, which probably have something strange going on in the records because there are many more A to Z titles that don't come up unless you do the funny double-A thing like the documentation says. Then comes the poem "To Zbigniew Herbert" by Michael Krüger.

I checked the public library catalog that I use most often (St. Louis County) and it has the same problem with, apparently, the same solution although I didn't find that documented anywhere.

I don't understand it. When I learned cataloging we put in the number of characters to be stripped as needed for initial articles. A to Z titles would have no stripped characters because the initial A is not an article. I checked out the catalog where my cataloging teacher works, Lewis and Clark Library System. Aha! Her catalog brings up A to Z titles just as I would expect. I believe all three systems are Innovative underneath, so it's something in the local set up of the catalog and the records. Not too surprising that I like this last way best--after all, it was the way I was taught!

Oh, and this post demonstrates something else I learned this week: how to link to things in the catalog. The same format that is documented for our Wash U catalog worked great for linking to the St. Louis County catalog and the Lewis and Clark catalog as well.     #

June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007