Brad:

> I would suggest that you consider cataloging it by Other Title (MARC Field
> 246), such as Green Book, instead of putting the color in the Descriptor
> field.  This way the alternate title is search able in most catalogs, where it
> probably is not searchable in the Descriptor field.  Plus, your patrons won't
> know to look in the descriptor field, nor care what information is in that
> field.  They may look at the Other Title field.

Certainly for books that are referred to as the "Red Book" or the "Green
Book", an alternate title field could be used.

I don't know how your particular OPAC works.  I wasn't thinking of
putting color in a descriptor field, and am not sure what you mean by
that anyway.  Subject headings?  Something in the fixed fields?

The OPAC in my library has a keyword index which searches across most
fields.  I would suggest including the color of a book in a field which
could be searched through the keyword index.

The best scenario would be to supply a separately searchable field
actually labelled "Color" because probably a lot of patrons wouldn't think
to search by color within the keyword index, or a limiting field labelled
"color", clearly visible on the first search screen, like Ovid does in
the web version.

With a keyword search, for common colors you would get a large retrieval
in an academic health sci library like ours.  And most patrons still don't
use ANDing or limiting features efficiently.

I don't know.  No easy answer.  I'm just trying to think of more ways to
help patrons find what they are looking for.

--Cathy    :-}


Catherine L. Wolfson                        Health Sciences Library
Information Services Librarian              University of Arizona
[log in to unmask]                   1501 N. Campbell Ave.
Tel:  520-626-2927                          P.O. Box 245079
Fax:  520-626-2922                          Tucson, AZ  85724-5079