Short guide to the BVBB online catalogue

By Otfried Lieberknecht

[1. Telnet configuration] [2. Log in] [3. Research commands] [4. Log off]

1. Telnet configuration

 Make sure that the option "Local Echo" of your telnet software is set ("on"). Otherwise you will not see your own input on your screen.

2. How to log in

 When you have read the follwing instructions, click here to make your telnet connection with the DBI server: Having done so, you will see the following requests (written here in capital letters) and have to reply with the following input (written here in bold letters; [Enter] means that you have to confirm by pressing the key "Enter" or "Return"):

   PLEASE ENTER NET COMMAND
   o imonx29t,msg=c'zt01' [Enter]


   CN05 PLEASE START DIALOG
   [Enter]


   BITTE LOGIN-BEFEHL EINGEBEN
      BENUTZERNUMMER (BN) CODEWORT (CW)
      EINGABE IN DER FORM: <BN.CW>
      ODER:                <CLOSE>

   1.ausk [Enter]
If you are lucky, you are now logged in and can start your research.

3. How to research the BVBB online catalogue

 You can research a string within the field "Titel" (command: at.tit:), or a leading string within the field "Autor" (at.aut:), or a given ISBN number (at.sbn:). Research is case insensitive. Research with boolean operators is not possible. Lists of retrieved titles are not ordered.

The field "Titel" contains not only the printed titel of a publication (formatted and abbreviated by the cataloguers), but also additional entries ("Einheitssachtitel") made by the cataloguers. Within the field "Titel" you can research a single word, a truncated word, or a phrase (without truncation):


   at.tit:Perspectives
   at.tit:Persp*
   at.tit:Philosophical Perspectives
N.B.: at.tit:Philsophical Persp* would yield the same results as at.tit:Philosophical*

Within the field "Autor" you can research either a truncated last name (at.aut:Mei*), or a complete last name followed by a joker for the first name (at.aut:Meier, *), or a full name with the last name followed by the (eventually truncated) first name (at.aut:Meier, Wilhelm or at.aut:Meier, W*). For further specifications in this field see below. But the last name without truncation or first name (at.aut:Meier) usually will yield no results, except in rare cases like at.aut:Aristoteles (see below). There seem to be no reasonable rules for researching the names of premodern authors, where the modern distinction of first and last names does not apply. In some cases, the first part of the name will already suffice, like in the following cases: 

   at.aut:Aristoteles
   at.aut:Aristotle

   at.aut:Dante
But usually you will have to add specifications (a patronym, surname, etc.) within pointed brackets, hoping that your specification (and spelling) is conform with those used by the cataloguers: 

   at.aut:Augustinus <von Hippo>
        but also:
   at.aut:Augustinus, Aurelius
   at.aut:Augustinus <Aurelius>
   
   at.aut:Thomas <de Aquino>
   at.aut:Thomas <von Aquin>
        but not:
   at.aut:Aquin, Thomas von
   at.aut:Aquino, Thomas de
   at.aut:Aquino, Thomas <de>   
   at.aut:Aquinas, Thomas
    
   at.aut:Gerardus <de Cremona>
   at.aut:Gerhard <von Cremona>
         but not:
   at.aut:Cremonensis, Gerardus
Don't expect the system to work as a system, that is according to rules. Not even with members of the same family. Dante, for instance, can be found with: 
   at.aut:Dante
   at.aut:Dante <Alighieri>
   at.aut:Alighieri, Dante
   at.aut:Alighieri, *
And his son Jacopo can be found with: 
   at.aut:Jacopo <Alighieri>
   at.aut:Alighieri, *
But he is unknown as: 
   at.aut:Alighieri, Jacopo
If you are not sure about the specification to use, try a truncation of the first part of the name. This will work in some cases like at.aut:Gerardus* or at.aut:Gerardu*, whereas in other cases it will not work: at.aut:Thoma* or at.aut:Thomas* will yield many modern authors with corresponding last names, but no Thomas de Aquino.

If your research yields no results, you will receive the message that either there is no such item or that you you used a wrong command. It would be nice to know which is the case, but you have to find out yourself by trying other commands or simply by divination.

If your research yields more than one result, you will receive a chaotic list of numbered short titles. To see the full title of, for instance, item no. 12, you have to type in: 

   @12
To display the full title of one of the items no. 1 through 9, you have to insert a leading zero (example: @02), because otherwise (with @2) you will receive an error message that the required item does not exist.

If the list of results is too long to be displayed on a single screen, you can move from one screen to the next by typing in 

    #3
The command #2 will bring you to the preceding screen. Long lists displayed on several screen don't number their items continously, because each screen starts again with no. 1 for its first item.

4. How to log off

 The command #u will bring you back to the iniatial screen where you have to enter close: 
   #u [Enter]

      BENUTZERNUMMER (BN) CODEWORT (CW)
      EINGABE IN DER FORM: <BN.CW>
      ODER:                <CLOSE>

   close [Enter]