The rules covered in this chapter are all related to OPAC Access Points, in connection with the generation and updating of OPAC Author, Title and Keyword indexes (using "auto_access_points" and "update_daily_access_points" respectively). The same rules directly influence which MARC Tags, Subfields etc. which will be searchable by online OPAC users.
The rules governing Stopwords and Initial Articles are also defined using this area of Parameter Management.
Note:
A default set of Access Points Rules is shipped with the product (with the exception of the Plurals List). The details of the default Tag Rules which govern the generation/updating of Talis access points are explained in OPAC Access Points.
Once within the Parameter Management area of "Utilities" i.e. when on the Parameter Management Form or any of its associated pop-up forms:
1. Press <F11> ("Action") to access the Utilities Action Bar, if it is not visible already.
2. Select Rules from the Action Bar to obtain the Rules Pull Down Menu.
3. Select Access Points from the Rules Pull Down Menu.
A secondary pull down menu will "cascade" down to the right of the Rules Pull Down Menu.
As may be seen from The Access Points Rules Options (Cascading Menu), there are facilities for defining various Access Points rules online:
Note:
Both Initial Articles and Stopwords are Language-specific. Their usage depends upon the necessary Languages having been set-up via Online Utilities, Parameters, Names, OPAC first.
The Author Tags List is used to specify the MARC Tags and Subfields which are to be involved when updating access points in the AUTHOR table.
Warning:
There is a bug in Talis Versions 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0, which means that the Author Tags maintenance interface should not be used. Contact BLCMP Customer Support if you require to amend or add any data.
To obtain the Author Tags List:
1. Select Access Points from the Rules Pull Down Menu. A secondary pull down menu will "cascade" off the Rules Pull Down Menu, as shown in The Access Points Rules Options (Cascading Menu).
2. Select the Author Tags option.
All Author Tags defined on the system will be presented in an editable list, as shown in The Author Tags List.
Each line on the Author Tags List represents one Tag/Subfield combination, and may be used to define and edit the Tag, Subfield and Indicator fields. All three fields are editable:
For further details on the value(s) and meaning(s) of the permitted input in these fields, refer to the appropriate section of the BLCMP MARC Manual.
Standard navigation rules apply. You may use either <Tab>, <®> or the other cursor movement keys to move between fields horizontally along a given line. You may move down to the next Author/Tag Rule in the list using either <¯> or <Enter> and move up/down the list more rapidly using <PgUp> & <PgDn> or the <Home> & <End> keys.
Note:
The <End> key may need to be selected a number of times typically; once to move to the end of the current field, then to move to the last field on the current line, and then to go to the end of the list.
Existing Author Tags may be edited and new Author Tags may be added to the list. Instructions on setting the attributes beneath each of the headings on the Author Tags List follow:
The MARC Tag must be 3 numeric characters in length. The Tag identifies the MARC field to be included. Refer to the appropriate sections of the BLCMP MARC Manual for further details.
The Subfield code is used to identify the particular subfield within the field (i.e. the particular element of information in the current AACR2 area) which is to be included in access points.
The Indicator field is used to specify a value for the first Indicator position, as explained in the BLCMP MARC Manual. This field will accept only one numeric character in the permissible range.
Note:
The second Indicator position is not required in the Author Tags List (as this is used to specify the number of characters to be ignored in filing, and will vary from record to record).
You may add as many new Author Tags to the list as required by moving to the bottom of the list and entering the Tags, Subfields and Indicators required in the three fields described above.
1. Use the cursor control keys, <PgDn>, or <End> to move to the blank line at the end list.
Note:
The <End> navigation option should be preferable as the Author Tags List may be very long.
2. Enter new data or amend existing data on each field, and use <Tab> or <®> to move along onto each successive field in turn.
3. When finished, press <Enter>, or move down onto the next blank line using the cursor arrow keys, ready to add further Author Tags (as required). New Author Tags will be saved on the system when the list is "Accepted".
Note:
If a new row is added here, it should also be added via Author Tag Rules to take effect.
Existing Author Tags on this list may be edited. Simply over-write any data already in the fields shown.
You may need to delete entries from the Author Tags List. If a particular Author Tag/Subfield combination is present on the list and no longer required, the line can be "removed":
1. Press <F8> ("Remove").
Any line can be removed, regardless of when it was added to the list.
Having added or edited the Author Tags required:
Press <F9> ("Accept")
The Author Tags List will close, and the database will be updated to reflect the new/amended Author Tags etc. Tags will be re-organised in ascending order, so that the list is properly sorted the next time it is accessed.
Note:
You need to run "access_points" to update/regenerate the indexes before any amendments to the Author Tags List will be reflected in the online system.
If, for any reason, you wish to abandon all amendments on this list without saving any of the changes made during the current editing session:
Press <F12> ("Quit")
The Author Tags List will close and you will return to the Parameter Management Form.
The Author filing key is made from the data held in 1 or more MARC fields defined by the MARC tags listed in the AUTHOR_TAG_RULE table. For instructions on specifying these tags, refer to Author Tags Maintenance.
This table holds the rules for concatenating different subfields within the same tag. All of those at the same level are concatenated.
Note:
There is a bug in Talis Versions 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0, which prevents users from entering a Tag number more than one. The interface incorrectly enforces uniqueness on the Tag Number (for example, you can only have one occurrence of Tag 100). This should therefore not be used. Please contact Customer Support if you need to add any tags to this table.
To obtain the Author Tag Rules List:
1. Select Access Points from the Rules Pull Down Menu.
2. Select the Author Tag Rules option.
The Author Tag Rules currently specified on the system will be presented in an editable list, as illustrated in The Author Tag Rules List.
Each line on the Author Tag Rules List represents the ordering instructions for one Author Tag and Sub-field combination.
The Author Tag Rules List allows users to amend existing rows, or to add new rows to this table. The general procedure for viewing, adding, editing and deleting Author Tag Rules is essentially similar to that described in Author Tags Maintenance. The only real difference is that the following information is required:
The Ordering is used to specify where Subfields with the same Tag number should be concatenated, and will usually be "0".
For a single Author string all AUTHOR_TAG_RULE rows with the same Tag and Ordering number are processed.
For each Tag defined in Author Tag Rules (AUTHOR_TAG_RULE), there should be a corresponding entry in Author Tags (i.e. the AUTHOR_TAG table, as defined using the Author Rules parameter interface), in order to provide a weighting value for each of the individual subfields.
Note:
Any new row is added here, it should be added via Author Tags to take effect.
The system suppresses the words in this list for the purpose of Title indexing and searching. The Initial Articles List is used for defining those commonly occurring articles and prepositions such as "The", "A", "An", "From" etc. which will need to be stripped from a user's input and not included in access points in order to improve searching and achieve a proper filing order.
To obtain the Initial Articles List:
1. Select Access Points from the Rules Pull Down Menu.
2. Select the Initial Articles option.
All Initial Articles currently defined on the system will be presented in an editable list, as shown in The Initial Articles List.
The general procedure for viewing, adding, editing and deleting Initial Articles is the same as described in Author Tags Maintenance.
The Initial Articles List now permits language-specific words to be defined. Initial articles which feature in this list will be omitted from both the index build and the search for the language(s) specified. Each initial article requires two fields to be defined:
The Language Code may be typed into the Language field directly. It is also possible to obtain a pop-up list of Language codes currently recognised using the <F5> ("List") option from this field. Language codes will be validated against those already set-up via Online Utilities, Parameters, Names, OPAC, Languages.
When performing a Title search, the system will check the language of the Work(s). Only if an initial article matches the word of the same language defined in this list it will be treated as an initial article irrelevant to this search. For example, the system can be instructed to search on the word "die" as a valid term in an English title, but treat it as an initial article if present in a German title. German initial articles will only be ignored if the user is specifically searching for German language material.
Note:
You must run "auto_access_points" to re-generate the indexes for any amendments to the Initial Articles List to be reflected in the indexing of online system.
The Keyword Tags List is used to specify the MARC Tags and Subfields which are to be involved when updating access points in the KEYWORD table.
To obtain the Keyword Tags List:
1. Select Access Points from the Rules Pull Down Menu.
2. Select the Keyword Tags option.
All Keyword Tags Rules defined on the system so far will be presented in an editable list. Refer to The Keyword Tags List.
Each line on the Keyword Tags List represents one Tag/Subfield combination, which is used to define and edit the Tag, Subfield and Local Flag fields. All three fields are editable:
For further details concerning the value(s) and meaning(s) of the permitted input in these fields, refer to the appropriate section of the BLCMP MARC Manual.
The general procedure for viewing, adding, editing and deleting Keyword Tags is the same as described in Author Tags Maintenance. The only differences are as follows:
Each MARC Tag must be 3 numeric characters in length and must be a valid Tag number. The Tag identifies the MARC field to be included. Refer to the appropriate sections of the BLCMP MARC Manual for further details.
The Subfield code must be a valid option for the Tag shown on the same line. This field is used to identify the particular subfield within the field which is to be included in access points.
This field allows you to indicate whether a general or local version
of a MARC Tag/Subfield
combination should be indexed. The meaning of the two possible values against
this flag are summarised below:
Local Flag Value Meaning
"Yes" Index the local MARC Tag/Subfield
"No" Index the general MARC Tag/Subfield
Only two values are permissible in this field; namely "Yes" or "No". This field is not editable directly; instead, use the <F6> ("Select") function key to toggle between the two ("Yes" or "No") options.
The Plurals List is obtained by selecting the Plurals option from the Access Points Rules Menu. You may add to this simple list any commonly occurring terms which you do not wish be stemmed as plurals when entered in a user's keyword search.
To obtain the Plurals List:
1. Select Access Points from the Rules Pull Down Menu.
2. Select the Plurals option.
All Plurals defined on the system so far will be presented in an editable list (independent of Language). Refer to The Plurals List.
Adding terms to this list will prevent the unintentional truncation of keywords ending in '"s", "es", "sses" and "ies". The aim is to avoid misleading results or false drops in OPAC Keyword searches. For example, adding "Leeds" to the Plurals List will prevent a keyword search for "Leeds" resulting in an incorrect hit on "Leed".
Implementation of the plurals stoplist depends on running "auto_access_points" before you will be able to take advantage of any plurals added.
Note:
Each Library will be responsible for creating and maintaining its plurals stoplist. A default stoplist is not supplied by BLCMP.
The general procedure for viewing, adding, editing and deleting Plurals is the same as described in Author Tags Maintenance. The only real difference is the fact that the Plurals List is a simple list comprising just the one initial article term per line.
It is only possible to use <F8> ("Remove") to remove lines added to this list in the current session.
The Stopwords List is used for defining the commonly occurring terms which need to be stripped from a user's input.
Once defined, stopwords become words which may not be searched for within OPAC. All terms entered in the Stopwords List will be suppressed from indexing and will be ignored if input during keyword searching.
1. Select Access Points from the Rules Pull Down Menu.
2. Select the Stopwords option.
All Stopwords currently defined on the system will be presented in an editable list, as shown in The Stopwords List.
The general procedure for viewing, adding, editing and deleting Stopwords is the same as described in Author Tags Maintenance.
The new Stopword List enables language-specific stopwords to be created. Keywords which feature in this stoplist will be ignored (i.e. considered too common to be meaningful) and will be omitted from an OPAC Keyword search. Each line on the list represents one stopword, and will require two features to be defined:
At the time of searching, the system will check the language of each Work. Only if a keyword matches the language of a stopword on this list will it be ignored (i.e. treated as a stopword). For example, the system can be instructed to search on the keyword "die" as a valid term in English, but treat it as a stopword if the Work is German.
The Language Code may be typed into the Language field directly. You may, alternatively, obtain a pop-up list of valid Language codes using <F5> ("List") from this field. Language codes will be validated against those set-up earlier via Online Utilities, Parameters, Names, OPAC, Languages.
Note:
You must run "auto_access_points" to re-generate the indexes for any amendments to the Stopwords List to be reflected in the online system.
The Title Tags List is used to specify the MARC Tags and Subfields which are to be involved when updating access points in the TITLE table.
To obtain the Title Tags List:
1. Select Access Points from the Rules Pull Down Menu.
2. Select the Title Tags option.
All Title Tags Rules currently defined on the system will be presented in an editable list, as shown in The Title Tags List.
Each line on the Title Tags List represents one Tag/Subfield/Relationship Type combination, which is used to define and edit the Tag, Subfield and Local Flag fields. All four fields are editable:
For further details concerning the value(s) and meaning(s) of the permitted input in these fields, refer to the appropriate section of the BLCMP MARC Manual.
The general procedure for viewing, adding, editing and deleting Title Tags is the same as described in Author Tags Maintenance. The only differences are as follows:
Each MARC Tag must be 3 numeric characters in length and must be a valid Tag number. The Tag identifies the MARC field to be included. Refer to the appropriate sections of the BLCMP MARC Manual for further details.
The Subfield code must be a valid option for the Tag shown on the same line. This field is used to identify the particular subfield within the field which is to be included in access points.
This field allows you to indicate whether a general or local version
of a MARC Tag/Subfield combination should be indexed. The meaning
of the two possible values against this flag are summarised below:
Local Flag Value Meaning
"Yes" Index the local MARC Tag/Subfield
"No" Index the general MARC Tag/Subfield
Only two values are permissible in this field; namely "Yes" or "No". This field is only editable using the <F6> ("Select") function key to toggle between "Yes" and "No".
The TITLE table is more complicated because the Tags and Subfields to be used vary, depending upon the type of Work record involved, namely:
The meaning of each Work-Work Relationship Type is summarised below:
Relationship Code Work-Work Link Relationship Type
MON Single-Volume Monograph
(or a parent Multi-Volume record)
ANA Analytical record
MP Multi-Volume Part
SER Serial
SP Series Part
Either a Relationship Type code or name may be entered directly into this field. When you attempt to exit this field (or press <F9> ("Accept") to save the Title Tags List), the Relationship Type will be validated. A Relationship Type code will expand to the full name equivalent. If an invalid Relationship Type (code or name) is detected, a list of valid Relationship Types will be presented for direct selection.
It is also possible to obtain a pop-up list of Relationship Types for easy selection, using the <F5> ("List") option from this field.
Rules relating to Access Points (as used in the OPAC module) include:
An explanation of the meaning and purpose of each of these Access Points Rules has been provided in this chapter. Instructions have been given on how to add new Rules and re-define existing Rules in each of the above categories.
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