Dear Safranim, We are in the process of setting up our library catalog on-line using OPALS Library Software.
We have a question for those who are also using OPALS. We would like to make searches easier for our patrons by having the search turn up relevant items regardless of whether the patron uses the Separdic or Ashkenazi spelling of the search term. For example we would like a search for "shabbas" to find items in the catalog that have the subject "shabbat," "sabbath," or "shabbos," even if the subject "shabbas" does not appear in the marc record. We would also like searches to account for nicknames. So that a search for "Maimonides" would turn up items that have "Moses ben Maimon," or "RAMBAM" in a subject field. The same issue can occur on an author search where the patron searches "Moses ben Maimon" and we want the search to turn up works where the marc record has "Maimonides" in the author field. Unfortunately OPALS does not currently have authority files where these alternate names and spellings could be specified. We are thinking we will need to add subject fields to each marc record where there are these type of variations. Is anyone concerned about this issues. Please let us know your thinking and how you are handling it. Thank you so much. Anna Lazaroff B'nai Havurah Denver --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@osu.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
