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Register with BTR
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sub-sections
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SLS PC Browser |
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Introduction, User Interface, Starting up, Host selection, Query building, Searching, Record display and management, Host administration, Set-up, Conclusions, Features comparison, Tech Briefing |
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Introduction |
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SLS are trying to build a customer base for their bibliographic services outside of their Libertas, and now Innopac, users. PC
Browser is designed to be primarily a cataloguer’s tool to provide good direct links to the SLS databases as well as a general tool for searching any Z39.50 compliant database. PC Browser has a less
exciting look and feel than the other two products reviewed but has a good feature list and is well worth looking at in some depth if you need a cataloguer’s tool.
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The user interface is a bit old fashioned and lacks the modern taste for Icons buttons for
functions are scattered around on the edges of Windows rather than being assembled on a tool bar. Lack of multi document support means you can only deal with one session at a
time although a session can be multi-host. One nice yet slightly bizarre feature is the ability to customise the Tool Tips. These can either be blue balloons, blue rectangles, a
status line or hidden. Overall the PC Browser interface is unexciting and a little idiosyncratic but perfectly useable.
There is good on-line help and a useful manual with some hints and tips on querying with
useful examples. SLS PC Browser is available in 4 languages.1
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On starting up PC Browser, you go straight into a search screen and can begin entering a
query for your default host(s) immediately. If you normally start off by choosing a host then you can have the host selection screen automatically overlay your search screen as part of your set-up defaults. |
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Host selection is by choosing from a list on the left side of the Window and building a
sub-set on the right hand side these will be the current hosts until you decide to change them. Whilst selecting sources, you can view the details of the host such as description,
MARC format, username etc. This information is only available as part of the edit function which might make it a bit vulnerable to accidental changes. There is no grouping or
categorisation facility so hosts have to be chosen from the complete list OK for a few regular sources a used by a cataloguer but more of a problem if you are using PC Browser as a general research tool. |
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Query building is one of the strengths of PC Browser. Unlike the other products in this
review, you do not have to struggle with a “query tree”. The query terms are entered with search fields (access points), and Boolean operators selected in a standard way. The
query builds up line by line. If you have a complex query with sub-queries related by Boolean operators e.g. (water OR aqueous or fluid or solution) AND (chlorine OR fluorine)
NOT bromine OR iodine) then you create each sub query - the parts in the brackets separately and make it a group. Each group is then related via Boolean operators e.g.
group #1 AND group #2 NOT group #3. I found this much easier to read and “debug” than trying to deal with a “query tree”. The history function keeps track of all this session’s
queries and their formulation you can re-query on these or copy an old query into a new one as a sub query. |
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Once the query is built, you just hit the Search button and a Search Status Window opens
summarising the current status of each connection and the number of hits retrieved. This is useful direct overall feedback. It does betray the fact that this product searches each
host separately and in the order you have set them. You cannot stop a search half way through to see what you are getting and then restart it. You have to wait until all sources
are searched and then browse the hits. If you stop half way through then you have to re-start from the beginning.
This sequential searching feels a bit pedestrian but it is easy to see what is going on and
as long as you have sites that are all replying it probably does not slow things down that much. The problem is when you have a lot of sites that don’t connect properly you have to
wait until the time out set for that search before it will move on to the next source.
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Record display and management |
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Although PC Browser lacks a little on the search sophistication, it has the ability to display
multiple full records from a specific host at the same time. Multiple records can be selected and then transferred to a local file. You can view in labeled or MARC format just
by pressing a button. There is no ability to change the brief record display and no local sorting or filtering so if you get a large set of records back, you have to browse through the lot of them.
Once you have a useful set of records, you can print, save in text format or transfer them to
a MARC file. PC Browser handles both UK and USMARC formats not translating between them but saving them in different files. This means that you can use the correct specific
loader to you Library Management System. The text file output contains details of date, the query, number of hits and the source as well as a brief record in ISBD punctuated
format. This could be re-formatted into other structures as a separate process.
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The host administration is pretty basic there is no group function. However there is a test
function which reports back on hosts albeit you have to do one at a time and the information is pretty basic. |
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The set up features are a bit thin since there are no direct display options. You can edit a
text file to change labels but this is not documented. Beyond host administration, you can set up the default search operators, language - a choice of English, Portuguese, Spanish
and Swedish, and all the default file names for saving records. You can also set up the access points to choose from during querying although not all of the Bib-1 attribute set is available. |
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PC Browser is a good cataloguer’s tool and the only one of the three products reviewed to
output UKMARC records although the format is going to disappear, there will be a lot of records out there in UKMARC for some time. Flexibility is where it loses out no sorting,
poor host administration and single session searching. But it is very good value and does the job it has been designed for in a robust reliable fashion. |
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