Problem

Years of journal issues can be impossible to wade through when trying to locate specific issues.

Solution

Filters on Location, Year, and Volume.
This tool was already available in the CUNY Catalog and has now been added to OneSearch, too.

Now, when there are sufficient issues to make filtering useful, filters will be offered above the issue list, as seen below (to view issues, open the “Locations” tab):

Source

This filtering, both in the OPAC and in OneSearch, is based on three Aleph item fields:

• sub-library
• volume, aka Enum.Level.1(A)(Vol.) or enumeration-a
• year, aka Chron.Level.1(I)(Year) or chronological-i

Missing Filters?

There are two situations in which filtering may appear incomplete.

1. missing volumes and/or years
2. missing filter selection boxes

1. Missing Volumes and/or Years

If you select volume 181 in the example above, it appears that Baruch does not own the issues. However, if you select the year 2008, the result clearly shows that Baruch does own volume 181 and the issues are listed.

This problem is caused by an empty Enumeration Level 1 (Volume) field in Aleph:

This is an example of how enhanced software and search capabilities make consistent cataloging more important than ever.

2. Missing Filter Selection Boxes

This is not actually a problem. Filters do not display for all periodical results.

Filters appear when there are sufficient issues to make filtering useful. The exact threshold (number of issues) at which filters are offered is not documented, but testing shows that the lower limit is definitely greater than four. In one example we found during testing, there are two locations – one with two issues and one with five issues. In this case (two locations, total of seven issues), the filters do display.

Also, if there is only one location or one volume or one year in a record, then that individual type of filter (location, volume, or year) does not display.

Behind the Scenes

The metadata cataloged in Aleph gets communicated to OneSearch in XML format. This is the item record for the record mentioned above, showing the underlying data structure (note the empty enumeration-a field):

<item>
<rec-key>000637362006890</rec-key>
<barcode>31716004953919</barcode>
<sub-library>Baruch Periodicals</sub-library>
<collection>PER</collection>
<item-status>02</item-status>
<note/>
<call-no-1>$$hShelved$$iby title.</call-no-1>
<call-no-2/>
<description>v.181 (2008:May-June)</description>
<chronological-i>2008</chronological-i>
<chronological-j/>
<chronological-k/>
<enumeration-a/>
<enumeration-b/>
<enumeration-c/>
<library>CUN50</library>
<on-hold>N</on-hold>
<requested>N</requested>
<expected>N</expected>
</item>