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- "Range of cells to look up" should already contain a reference to the cells containing your search data, but you can use the button to the right of this field to adjust the range if needed.
- Set "Field to Search" to indicate the kind of data in the selected cells (in this case, ISBNs). If the data type does not appear in this menu, you can choose "Keyword", or click the "Additional fields..." button to see a complete list of available search fields.
- "Leftmost result column" indicates the column where the search results will be output. If more than one result type is selected, the others will be put in consecutive columns to the right of the first.
- "Result types" indicates the type of data elements to retrieve from the catalog. "True/False" will simply put TRUE in the results column if the search key in that row was found, and FALSE if not. The drop-down menu gives other options for specific fields to retrieve, or you can specify one using the MARC field and subfield codes. The explanation in the dialog describes how to specify such fields.
- Click “OK” to begin the lookup process. You will see the tool populating the result column(s) with the retrieved values. Hidden rows will be skipped. If a record contains multiple instances of the desired result field/subfield, then all instances will be placed in the result cell, separated by “broken vertical bar” characters (¦). If multiple bibliographic records are retrieved by a single search value, the desired field from each record will be placed in the result cell, separated by solid vertical bars (|).
Beta version (1.3.0) for non-Alma sources
Though not officially released, there is a beta version of the tool that can search certain non-Alma catalogs relevant to PUL, specifically ReCAP (SCSB), IPLC ReShare (BorrowDirect), Library of Congress, and WorldCat. If you are interested in trying out this version, please let Tom Ventimiglia know. The installer for the beta version can be downloaded from:
The specific features supported by the beta version are subject to change prior to the official release, but the following notes describe in general how it works:
- A new button "Non-Alma Sources", now appears under the "Base URL" field. Clicking this button will show a list of supported catalogs. You can select one of these to add it to the list of available sources. It will then appear in the drop-down list alongside any Alma URLs already there. (Rather than a URL, these sources will appear in the list as the text "source:" followed by an abbreviation for that source). Simply select the source from the drop-down to search it.
- The first time you try to search WorldCat, you will be prompted for a username and password. You can use the same login that you use for OCLC Connexion (and save the login so you don't have to enter it each time).
- The supported search types may be more limited compared to Alma catalogs. When searching ReCAP, one cannot retrieve fields using MARC codes. The supported result types are shown in the drop-down menu. Note that keyword searching cannot be used to search for OCLC numbers in WC; the "OCLC No." search type must be used.
- For some sources, a "holdings" result type is available, which will generate a list of holding institutions. For ReCAP, this produces a list of institution names separated by vertical bars. For BorrowDirect, the institution codes along with the holdings status (e.g. "UNLOANABLE") are extracted from fields 999$s and $p of the retrieved records. For WorldCat, the institution codes in field 945$c are retrieved. A broken-bar-delimited list is generated for each retrieved record, and the lists themselves are separated by vertical bars. Other holdings-related information (such as $a country, $b province, and $d institution name) can be retrieved by specifying the corresponding subfield of 945.