Hyperlinks and Cross References

Hyperlinked fields

Figure 510: Single Record, Catalog Information. Clickable Fields

When Catalog Information for a single record is displayed, most of the fields are clickable. This includes author, title, subjects, series, etc. Once you have retrieved and displayed a relevant citation, why would you want to execute a second follow-up search by clicking an underlined entry? Hot linked fields help you use Library of Congress terminology. This standardized terminology can help you improve both precision and completeness. Here is one example of each.

1. Suppose your initial search is as follows.

You will retrieve works about the 16th century Reformer, Martin Luther, and also works about the 20th century civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Once you have displayed some records you will see the proper form for the Reformer is >> Luther, Martin, 1483-1546 In this instance, you can improve precision by clicking the hot link to execute a second search.

2. Search for "eternal security." View the items in detail. Soon you will see the Library of Congress does not use "eternal security" as a subject heading. It favors the following two terms: >> Assurance (Theology) >> Perseverance (Theology) In this instance, you can increase the completeness of your search by using LC terminology.

A heading may be more restrictive than you wish to be. For example, if the heading is >> Bible. N.T. John III, 16––Sermons then a hypertext search (clicking the heading) would limit your secondary search to sermons. Would you really want to do that? It would also limit your search to an exact match on John chapter 3, verse 16. So you would not get a record that said John iii, 15-21, for example. So it is often prudent to observe LC terminology, but manually type the search terms you really want rather than just clicking a hypertext link.

Note in Figure 510 above that the box to the left allows you to click on "Items with the Same Subject". Click that link and BIBLOS will search for all the subjects ored together. Generally that is not a wise course of action. It is usually better to view the Catalog Information and pick the most relevant terms for a secondary search.

Cross references

BIBLOS will occasionally suggest a cross reference to a standardized form of entry when you have used a non-standard variant. For example, a search for

retrieves only a handful of records, none of which are by the John Calvin. What is wrong? Surely the library has something by him!

Figure 530: Cross reference button and prompt

Note the X-Refs button (near top row) and the "Try these too" cross reference prompt (lower right corner) are present. Click either and it searches for >> Calvin, Jean, 1509-1564. The Library of Congress has identified the French form of his name (Jean) as the most authentic. LC has also distinguished Jean Calvin from other people with the same name by adding dates (1509-1564). So it is necessary to search for Calvin, Jean, 1509-1564 rather than Calvin, John.

The search . . .

retrieves the same records as

but it produces NO cross references. Name cross references assume last name first. For this reason, it is wise to always enter last name first when searching for names. The word order makes no difference in the results of a basic keyword search, but word order does make a difference in finding potential cross references.

Searches in the "everything/general" keyword category present additional problems. BIBLOS does not know what kind of cross reference (author, title, subject, etc.) is most appropriate since everything includes everything. BIBLOS is configured to provide a subject cross reference since subject subject searches are common. So the search . . .

will produce subject cross references for Calvin, but not author cross references. Again, if you pick a specific category to search (author, title, subject, etc.) then the cross references will be more helpful.

Cross references may also suggest broader terms, narrow terms, or related terms. The cross reference record for "baptism" in Figure 540 suggests many narrower terms. The entries are clickable.

Figure 540: The Cross Reference Record for "baptism"

Advance to next chapter in tutorial.