SPCAT : Help

What is SPCAT?

Features

• Search operations are simple, consisting mainly of mouse clicks on buttons and links.
• Searches can be made not just by book title or author name but also by publisher, subject heading, and classification.
• Keywords may be written in romaji " Romanized Japanese ", Chinese characters, katakana, or hiragana.
• The browse function can be used to display lists for searching not just by keyword, but also by title, author, and call number.
• The UCS version can also display alphabets with symbols such as umlauts and the simplified characters used in China.

Basic methods of operation

1. Enter a search word (if more than one word, separate with spaces); click on the [Search] button and a list of entries (“Brief Record(s)”screen) will appear.

2. Click on the entry you want further information about, and a detailed list of data and holding libraries (“Full Record(s)/Holding(s)”screen) will be displayed.

3. If you click on the series name in the “Full Record(s)/Holding(s)”screen, a list will appear showing detailed data for the series itself and each title in the series.

4. If the search is for a periodical, the title of which has been changed, a history of previous titles will appear on the “Full Record(s)/Holding(s)”screen. By clicking on one of these titles, the detailed data of the selected periodical will be displayed.

5. Clicking on title changes on the “Full Record(s)/Holding(s)” screen (such as “CF,” an abbreviation of “continuation of the former title”) displays the “Title Change Map”.

6. To return to the previous screen, use the browser's “Back” function.

7. Other items to note in regard to operation are:
   • Click on the [Search Screen] link to return to the search screen. Doing so will clear all previously entered search criteria.
   • To search again without clearing previous search criteria, click on [Return] until the search screen comes back up.
   • Clicking on the [Clear] button on the search screen will erase any search words that were entered and reset the search criteria settings.

Advanced methods of operation

1. Limiting the search subject
   • A radio button can be used to limit the search to [Books] or [Serials]. The default search setting is [Books and Serials].

2. Selecting holding libraries
   1. When using the SPCAT system to search the collected holding records of more than one library, users can select [Holding Libraries] as the search object.

   2. When [All] is checked, all holding libraries will be the object of the search and the check marks by individual libraries will disappear.

   3. When individual libraries are checked, the check mark next to [All] will disappear.

   4. If the check mark next to [All] is cleared, each of the individual libraries will remain checked. By removing the check mark from the libraries they do not want searched, users can select the libraries they do want.

   5. Using the [Select Holding Libraries] function requires that users enable JavaScript in their browser preferences.

3. Keyword search
   1. The following ten types of search field are available on the search screen.

      #	Search field	Description
      1	Keyword	Title, reading of the title, words in the title, other ways of reading the title, author's name, reading of the author's name, subject headings, reading of the subject headings, notes on content
      2	Title	Title, reading of the title, words in the title, other ways of reading the title
      3	Author	Author's name, reading of the author's name.
      4	Call Number	Call number
      5	Publisher	Publisher
      6	Year of Publication	Range of years in which publication occurred.
      7	Classification	Classification number (bibliographic classification)
      8	Subject Headings	Subject headings, reading of the subject headings
      9	ISBN / ISSN and other code numbers	ID, ISBN, ISSN, CODEN
      10	Holding Location(s)	Code describing the holding location(s) (abbreviated name of the affiliated library + location code)

   2. Enter the search word in the search field and click on the [Search] button.

   3. A “Brief records” list will display information that meets the conditions entered, such as book and periodical titles. (If there is only one record then “Full Record(s)/Holding(s)” screen will appear.)

   4. Clicking on an entry on the Brief Record(s) screen will display its bibliographic and holdings data on the “Full Record(s)/Holding(s)” screen.

   5. If two or more search words are specified in one search field with blanks between the search words, then the program will search for these words using a logical AND operator.

   6. Entering search words in two or more search fields will result in a logical AND search of these words.

   7. Use an asterisk (either 1 byte or 2 bytes) as a wild card to search for words with a common root.
      (However, wild card searches cannot be made on year of publication, classification, number/code, or holding location.)

      Example of entry	Example of search results
      librar*	library libraries librarian

   8. Placing a “#” at the beginning of the search word in the Title search field makes the search a full title search.

      Example of entry	Example of titles	Example of titles
      #science	Science	Journal of Social Science Information Science Abstracts
      #kagaku	科学	こどもの科学 科学朝日

   9. When specifying a name in the Author search field, separate the family name and given name with a space.

   10. If the four digits of the year are specified in the Year of Publication search field, the search will be made according to the following pattern.
       1. If 1990-1995 is specified, the search will include all records from the beginning of 1990 to the end of 1995.
       2. If 1995- is specified, the search will include all records from the beginning of 1995 onward.
       3. If -1900 is specified, the search will include all records up to the end of 1900.

   11. In the [Classification] search field, searches can be made by entering only a classification number or a combination of classification number and classification kind. The classification kind and classification number are connected by a colon (:) :
       1. If “240” is specified, then the search will find items with classification number 240, no matter what the classification kind may be.
       2. If NDC8:007 is specified, then the search will find the classification number 007 in the Nippon Decimal Classification 8 version.
       3. The classification kinds that can be specified as search words are shown in the table below.

          Classification kind	Description	Search word specification
          DC	Dewey Decimal Classification	OK
          DC17	DC17version	OK
          DC18	DC18version	OK
          DC19	DC19version	OK
          DC20	DC20version	OK
          DC21	DC21version	OK
          NDC	Nippon Decimal Classification	OK
          NDC6	NDC6version	OK
          NDC7	NDC7version	OK
          NDC8	NDC8version	OK
          NDC9	NDC9version	OK

       4. Other kinds of classification are shown below. These classification kinds cannot be specified as search words.

          Classification kind	Description	Search word specification
          BBK	Books/bibliographic classification used in academic libraries (Soviet Union)	NG
          BC	Bibliographic Classification	NG
          CC	Colon Classification	NG
          LCC	Library of Congress Classification	NG
          NDLC	National Diet Library Classification	NG
          NLM	National Library of Medicine Classification	NG
          UDC	Universal Decimal Classification	NG

   12. Searches cannot be made in which only holding location(s) are specified. Please combine the holding location(s) with some other search field.

4. Browse function
   1. The browse function is for displaying a summary list of records.

   2. Lists by title, author, or call number can be displayed.

   3. Enter a search word in the appropriate search field, click the [Browse] button to the right of the search field, and a list of records starting from the entered search word will be displayed (Title, Author, and Call Number Browse menus).

      Search field	Entered search word
      Title	Reading of title (hiragana, katakana or romaji)
      Author	Reading of author's name (hiragana, katakana or romaji)
      Call Number	Call number for data/materials

   4. If the [Browse] button is clicked for an empty search field, the display will start from the beginning of the registered data (“ア” for Title or Author and the lowest number for Call Number).

   5. Title or Author lists are displayed in the order in which they are read. Records will display in either a, i, u, e, o sequence, code, numeric, or alphabetical order.

   6. The Browse menu displays ten records at a time.

   7. Bibliographic and holding data will be displayed when users click on the name of a book in the Browse menu.

   8. Clicking on [Previous] in the Browse menu will display the previous ten records and clicking on [Next] will display the next ten records.

   9. In the Browse menu, if users enter the reading for a Title or Author or enter a Call Number in the search field and click on the Browse button, the list will start displaying from the search word's location in the list (the browse jump function).

   10. In the Title Browse menu, data for variant titles, intermediate titles, uniform title headings, and “See Also” will be displayed as titles, and records in the reference section are denoted by “==>.” Clicking on a reference title will bring up the “Full Record(s)/Holding(s)” screen for that title.

   11. In the Author Browse menu, “See By” and “See Also By” data are shown as author's names, and author headings are denoted by “==>.” Click on the author heading in the reference section to move to the heading for that author in the Author Browse menu.

   12. In the Author Browse menu, titles by the author are displayed in a numbered list under the author heading. Click on a title to bring up the “Full Record(s)/Holding(s)” screen for that record.

   13. If users enter a search word in romaji to browse by Title or Author, the search word will be converted to Japanese romanization before the search is performed. To suppress the conversion for a search, check the “Non-Romanization Mode (Browse)” option before browsing.

5. Points to note when searching
   1. Searches are conducted without distinguishing between hiragana and katakana, between English upper case and lower case letters, or between 1 byte and 2 byte characters.

   2. However, do not use 1-byte katakana characters in search words as that may cause an error in system operations.

   3. A keyword is the shortest possible word unit with a distinct meaning. Search for compound words by separating them into multiple search words first ( 日本 or 歴史 are okay, but not 日本歴史 without a space in between)

   4. If Kanji (Chinese characters) are specified for a search word, the search word entered will be converted into unified Kanji by the Kanji unification index and then transferred to the search system.
      The Kanji unification index is a setup for performing exhaustive searches of the Japanese and Chinese language data in a multilingual catalogue system. Kanji characters that resemble each other in form, or Kanji that have identical or similar meanings are grouped. When the search index is created, the characters in these groups are converted to the character assigned to represent the group as a whole.

   5. Clicking on [Help] will display this help menu.

   6. Click on [Guide] to display the guide menus prepared by each holding library.

   7. To return to the previous screen, click on [Return] or use the browser's back function.

   8. If the record being searched for does not exist, the “No records hit” message will appear. Click [Return], enter more appropriate search conditions and redo the search.

   9. If there are too many search results (that is, if the number of results is more than the default value), the following message will appear: "200 records is the most that can be displayed. Please check the number of results displayed per page on the search screen. " In this case, try increasing the number of search conditions so as to narrow the search range. Or, adjust " Maximum results displayed per page (50, 100, 200, 500, 1000) " in the upper right corner of the search screen.

   10. Examples of specifying a search word
       In the examples below, Ok indicates a hit, NG means no hit, and △ indicates an undesirable search word.
       • Searching for "Joho no seiki o ikite" by Hiroshi Inose.

         Entry example	Result	Explanation
         Title : 情報の世紀を＊	OK	A wild card search using the complete form of the title.
         Title : jouhounoseikiwoikite*	OK	A wild card search using the complete form of the title. (Entered in romaji)
         Title : せいき　イキテ	OK	An AND search of keyword(s) in the title
         Title : seiki　ikite	OK	An AND search of keyword(s) in the title. (Entered in Roman letters)
         Title : ジョウホウ	△	Too many titles with that word.
         Title : jouhou	△	Too many titles with that word.
         Title : ジョウホウ Author : 猪瀬　博	OK	Narrowing a search using an AND search between search fields.
         Title : jouhou Author : inose　hirosi	OK	Narrowing a search using an AND search between search fields. (Search words entered in Roman letters)
         Author : 猪瀬博	NG	Surname and given name must be separated by a space.
         Author : inosehirosi	NG	Surname and given name must be separated by a space.