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Home > Minerva > Cataloging > Millennium > Searching for Bibliographic Records

Searching in Millennium for Bibliographic Records

Starting with basics | Opening | Checking settings | Prepare item record templates | Searching for biblio records | Attaching holdings | View a record in public catalog | Deleting records | Importing records | Adding original record | Creating new biblio record | Miscellaneous

The bib record contains information that describes a specific book, video recording, sound recording, etc. When a library becomes a member of Minerva their bib records are downloaded into the system. If a matching record is found, the library’s location code and item record are automatically attached to that record. If no match is found the library’s record is added to the database. Following are some tips and tricks on searching for bib records in Millennium.

  1. The word Index appears in the center of the screen next to a box labeled Title. Click on this box to view and select options for searching or type the lower case letter or punctuation that appears before each option. For example, type the letter “i” to select PUBN# (ISBN).
    Tip for searching for bib records
  2. After a choice has been made, the cursor will move to the search box on the right. Type in the words or numbers to be searched without regard for capitalization and punctuation. To search by ISBN or ISSN select PUBN# and type in the numbers without hyphens.
    Type ISBN to search
  3. To search by the unique bib number assigned to each record, select RECORD# and enter the number preceded by the letter b in the search box.
    How to search by unique bib number for a record
  4. To begin a search, key Enter or click on the word Search to the right of the search box.

Expanding a screen of records

Select Expand all to the right of the search box to see all titles in the list. For example if the search is for the title “Cat in the Hat” a display may appear as:

Select expand all

Click Expand all and the title information will appear for all of the items on the list. To expand only one set of the items in a list, place the cursor on the line and click once or key “Enter.”

When an individual title in a list is highlighted the following information will be displayed in the window above the search box:

Information appears in window about search box

This feature offers a quick preview of the information in the bib record without opening the record itself.

Limiting a search

There are many ways to search for material. You may begin your search by entering the ISBN or ISSN. However, if you do not find a match search by title and/or author next. Limiting your search is another useful tool. To limit a search:

  1. Click on the Limit icon which is a picture of a page with a hand on it at the very top of the screen.
    Click Limit
    A window will open with Limits at the top of a list of choices
    A list of choices
  2. Click on the appropriate choice and either select or type the required information. For example if you are looking for an audio cassette by Sandra Brown, you would search by her name; limit the search by material type and select Spoken (CAS).
    Making your choice
  3. Select Save at the bottom of the material type window which will then close. Select Apply at the bottom of the Limits window and a new search will result displaying only those items entered under Brown, Sandra that are sound recordings on cassettes. When the option Apply limit to all searches is checked, the limit will be applied to all subsequent searches until it is cleared.  For example, if the search is limited by location and Apply limit to all searches is selected all subsequent searches will automatically be limited by that location until Apply limit to all searches is cleared.
    When applying limit to all searches, the limit is applied to further searches until cleared

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Displaying a record

To open a record to see a display of item records on the summary screen, place the cursor on the line for the record and double click or click on the word Select or key Enter. To go directly to the bib record place the cursor on the line for the record and select the Edit icon at the top of the screen If the View icon, which is a page with an eye on it, is selected on the search screen or the summary screen, the bib record will be in “View Only" mode and may not be edited.

Select edit to display a record

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Tiling multiple records

Records may be tiled to display side-by-side. This function works best with no more than two or three records.

  1. Maximize the Millennium search screen; select and open the first record. Chose the next record to display without minimizing the first one. Click on the word “Window” at the top of the second record and select Tile vertically. ( Note: Before records will tile, the setting Multi-window mode must be selected as instructed under Setting the window display found at the beginning of this guide.)
    Select tile vertically
  2. If the records to be tiled are minimized and the bib numbers for the records appear at the very bottom of the computer screen click on the word Window at the top of the last bib record selected and Cascade all. The records will appear one behind the other. Go to Window again and select Tile Vertically. The records will now display side-by-side.

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Next: Attaching Holdings to Existing Minerva Bib Records