LibGuides News

Every week I update my new books list in my LibGuide. I use a Books from the catalogue box for this. Today, I noticed that the fine people from Springshare have improved the Add new book window. Before if a book had no cover, one would have to either search the internet for an image with a URL, or use the one provided by LibGuides which was complicated to find. The new improvement brings a little icon that one can use, if there is no Amazon or Syndetics book cover. Below is a screenshot so you can see what I mean:

When working in a Books from the Catalog box, LibGuides requires an ISBN-10 inorder to retrieve the cover from Amazon or Syndetics. It seems that Amazon, and I'm guessing Syndetics too, only work with ISBN-10s (read more here). While this usually does not matter much, occasionally one comes across an ISSN or an ISBN-13 without an ISBN-10 equivalent that one would like to use. In this case, simply find the cover elsewhere on the net, and link to that cover. 

With the change over to Aleph 20, the URL to link to Aleph records has also changed. The new one's are:

Linking to ISBN: http://aleph20.calico.ac.za/F/?func=find-b&find_code=ISBN&local_base=uct01&request=

Linking to ISSN: http://aleph20.calico.ac.za/F/?func=find-b&find_code=ISSN&local_base=uct01&request=

Just put the ISBN or the ISSN after the equals sign. Thanks to Caroline for providing these. 

I did notice, however, that if there is any other additional information attached to the ISBN (such as pbk.) the URL won't find the record. To get around this I suggest using the system number, which can be found in the MARC field 001. Here's the URL:

http://aleph20.calico.ac.za/F/?func=find-b&find_code=SYS&local_base=uct01&request=

Just add in the 9 or 6 digit system number after the equals sign.

Jen has suggested that you can use the document number, which is the same as the system number found in MARC field 001. Here's that URL:

http://aleph20.calico.ac.za/F/?func=direct&doc_number= 

I link to Aleph records when I add books to the Books from the Catalogue box.

 

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[20 Jan 2010] Update from Debbie

 

Here is the link for a keyword search in Aleph 20:

http://aleph20.calico.ac.za/F/?func=find-b&find_code=WRD&local_base=uct01&request=

Remember to add in the keyword after the equals sign.