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Home > Minerva > System Info > Create Lists

Create Lists - Minerva List Creation Cookbook

First, some general observations and hints.

  1. Creating lists is a harmless process. You can't hurt the database by creating a list, because you are only getting a specific list of information about records.
  2. Lists come in several flavors: bibliographic, item, patron, order, checkin and hybrid. A hybrid list is the most interesting because you can specify items from any or all of the other types. You could, for instance, create a list of records with a 650 field containing fantasy and a shelf location of bbhau. With this sort of list creation, you are limited only by your imagination.
  3. Take time to look at all the elements in a record, be it item, bib or patron. The better understanding you have of what information is hidden behind a specific piece of the record, the better shot you have at creating the right list. HINT: to make a neat cheatsheet, highlight the full screen in telnet, go to edit, select copy and then paste into word, wordpad, etc. Print out and make notes about the various #s.
  4. Creating a list is like everything else in your life, sometimes no matter how you set it up, it will refuse to play by the rules.  When that happens, go do something ese for a while and save your sanity.
  5. Lists can be sorted by any bit of information they contain. Learning the tricks associated with this is one of the more important elements of listmanship. They are also interconnected, meaning a patron list is connected to any bib or items currently checked out to a patron, an item list is connected to bibs, etc., so you can sort on any aspect of the connected records.
  6. Once you have the right list, you can select specific elements and print only these bits of information. For example, if you create a list of overdue books, you can then select the following and email or print them: Title, author, date due, barcode, call#, patron name, patron phone# and patron email address. DO THIS by selecting L and then each of the elements you want. If you only want a sample to work with, select the starting and ending #s from the screen with print options(1 & 2). You can then send them to yourself by selecting email printer after selecting S to print.
  7. LIST TWEAK #1: Lists can be accessed from three locations: Telnet, Millennium and Guicat. In Guicat, all the lists are accessible from the triple folders just to the left of the Z39.5 icon. Here is where you can access them most easily to edit or delete individual records.The quickest way to shrink a list you have been editing is to do one or both of the following: 1-resort in telnet by whatever element works best. This will remove all deleted items. To remove items you have edited but not deleted, sort by updated date. This puts all the recently edited items together at the end of the list. To remove a group of records from a list in telnet, find the first record #, then the last one. Select G and enter the range like this 237-901 and hit enter.
  8. LIST TWEAK #2In telnet, I have discovered that you can sort for a number of interesting things. In a cleanup file, for example, you can sort by 001 or 003 and then pull out records other Minerva catalogers have fixed while you weren't looking. If you wanted to move records with specific subfields like |h, you can use the ! to tell the program you want to sort by a specific MARC field.
  9. LIST TWEAK#3 If you want a smoother more compact list of authors and/or titles when you send a file to print, specify for author !(marc field) 100|a and for title !(marc field) 245|a. This truncates any dates or subtitles in your list.
  10. Running Lists in Millennium are much faster when you are creating lists of item or patron records as you can limit by your barcode range. To do his see the Millennium section below.

List Basics: TELNET

To create any list, fire up your telnet program and do the following:

  1. Choose M-Management, then L-create lists.
  2. Enter your personal login and password.
  3. Find an empty slot that is the right size. If unsure, err on the side of caution and pick a slot one size bigger than you think you need.
  4. Type the slot #, then select 2 for create a new list.  Select the list type you want.  Specify the search criteria and set the range if needed.
  5. Remember to name, add your initials and the date you create it. In times of need, we reserve the right to empty any list not named, initialed and dated.
  6. List etiquette decrees that lists be emptied once you have finished using them.
  7. Pay attention to where your first hit appears in an item or patron list. Subtract 10,000 from that # and use it as your starting point for future searches.
  8. To switch between list types when creating or pulling specific items, use the ?
  9. You can send selected items by selecting the email printer once you get your elements selected. One benefit of this is the ability to then send that list to selected patrons in the case of a new book list, etc.
  10. Tips for fine tuning a list, courtesy of Laura Bean at CML: In an item list use #1=1 to get the first copy. In the bib record to limit by year, use @=Y for year of publication. to make the first record the default, simply hit enter. This works to make the ending record the default as well.

Conventions for use of Minerva Review Files

  • Use the smallest slot that will suffice for your list.  Don't consume a 60,000 record slot for a list of 1700 records.  If you don't know before hand how large a list will be, Create it using a large slot, then Copy it to a smaller slot, then Empty the original file.
  • Always include the following elements in the name of the review file: library abbreviation, the date of list creation and a brief descriptive phrase to identify your review file. It often helps to include an indication of record type.  Examples: "rpl new fict bibs  11/30/02",  "edl items to get location of edlrf 5/2/02".
  • Delete review files you have created as soon as they are no longer needed. Never delete review files created by another library.
  • The system administrators may delete without notice any files older than 35 days, files lacking a library abbreviation and files lacking a date.  If you will need a review file longer than 35 days, use the Rename function to insert a more recent date.  
  • Do not "take ownership" of file slots or files.  All slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis to any Minerva site. There are two exceptions to this rule: 1) Libraries may take ownership of one list large enough to hold their item records and 2) Libraries should take ownership of their Featured Lists to prevent accidental moving or deleting of the list.
  • If you need a particularly large slot and it is in use by someone else, feel free to ask the library involved whether and when the slot can be freed up.
  • The system administrator may move review files to smaller slots from time to time, and without notice. The review file name will be preserved, though a move date may be appended. 

The Cookbook

Overdues within a date range: Find ITEM records that satisfy the following conditions; LOCATION = bbh AND DUE DATE between (W) 08-01-2002 & 11-30-2002

Item status: Find ITEM records that satisfy the following conditions
LOCATION = bbh AND STATUS = m OR STATUS =
Here are the choices you can use b=bindery, c=storage, e=tech. services, l=lost, m=missing, n=billed, o=library use only, p=in processing, r=repair, z=claimed returned.

Note: this is handy for following up on patrons who are ignoring bills and to replace or weed items you can't find.

Patrons who owe lots of $$: HOME LIBR = fml AND MONEY OWED >= 5.00

Note: this is a good one to use the list certain items tool on. Once you have the list, you can pull the varying elements together to create a profile showing the perpetrator, address, phone, book(s) overdue and $ owed. Handy for phone calls, etc.

Sort by location: Find ITEM records that satisfy the following conditions
LOCATION = bflnf(substitute whatever location you want.)

Tips: The item range is very important here. If you are looking for newer stuff, search the last 25,000 items AND make a note of what the last item# is on the day you create the list. Use that # as your starting point when you replicate the list next time.
You can create a list witn multiple locations by making the following changes: LOCATION = bflnf OR LOCATION = bflna OR LOCATION=bflnv.

Find records with a particular bibliographic element: LOCATION = bbh AND MARC field 655 has Boothbay

Note: To select a marc field, use ! and to select a specific subfield, use ! enter the marc tag and then |h (or whatever one you are looking for).

Create a list of patrons added within a specific time period:
HOME LIBR = cml AND CREATED between 11-01-2002 & 12-31-2002 **To get the created between option, select W**

Create a list of books with holds on them: Select an Item list and then the following. LOCATION has sp AND HOLD exists **to get hold, type /8 and select the choice exists.You can get ALL your holds by just choosing your main location MMH, BBH, BML, etc, or you can limit it to a specific shelf location by using LOCATION=bbhfi, etc.

Create a review file of periodical issues to delete.
1-in Milcat or Milcirc find an empty review slot.
2-choose item as type.
3-change range to item in the drop-down menu and then select barcode in the new drop down menu.
4-For barcode range put your 3**** followed by 9 zeroes, then 3**** followed by 9 nines (e.g. 34444000000000 34444999999999).
5-For condition 1 select item-location=(your periodical code) 6-for condition 2 select item created <(equal to or before) and the date. For example, if you wanted to kill off all magazines created in 2003 or earlier, you would put < 01-07-2004 to catch any laggard cataloging

Find bib records where you have an item, but missed adding your library to the location in the Bib record (courtesy of Mike at Lithgow)Start with an item list, select LOCATION has bbh and ?(change to bib) #3(location) X(lacks) bbh, choose #1-All fields do not have. YOu should have a line that looks like this:
LOCATION has bbh AND LOCATION does not have bbh In order to be comprehensive, this one should be run against the whole bib database.

Finding bib records by condition in fixed field: Here's how to find suppressed bib records LOCATION = bbh AND INITIALS = n
If you wanted to search items by material type, you could change to LOCATION=bbh and Mat Type= (a=printed material, g=projected medium, i=spoken recording, j=sound recording, u=audio recording, v=video cassette, w=DVD, x=Compact Disc Y=CD-ROM, Z=Internet)

Note: this type of list will be helpful when you want us to flip your material types from the older g,i,j to the new ones, so things are more accurate when we add the new material descriptor column in Minerva.

New books added to your holdings...sorted by subject **Granted this is a narrow request, but one I received during the list classes.
Start with an item list and select the following LOCATION has tck AND CREATED between 07-01-2002 & 02-04-2003 (range of dates according to what time period you want) use ? to change to a bib list and select ! to pick a MARC field type 6* (the asterisk acts as a wild card and will catch all 600 fields) has and choose whatever subject area you want to sort.

Note: you can add as many other subject words as you want by doing the following: hit O (or) then ! and 6* has and add the next subject...Repeat as desired.

Tech College Special-items due by the end of the semester(and by default, still out)Choose an item list and use the following criteria LOCATION has tce AND DUE DATE < 12-31-2002 <=equal to or less than...Set to last day of the semester and run a week before, so you can stay on top of your overdues.

Weeding/Collection Development tool This will give you a list of items that have not circulated since you went live.LOCATION has tce AND TOT CHKOUT = 0 (choose #16, then #14) Conversely, if you want a collection development tool, run a search to find what items have been most popular. LOCATION=tce AND TOT CHECKOUT =>20 (or whatever # you want)

Finding Phantoms I discovered this quite by accident. Create a bib list as follows:LOCATION=bbh Run a range of bib records. You don't need the whole enchilada, you can do this in sequential searches.When you are finished, sort the list as follows ? change to item and sort by Call # and then by barcode. Tee sort will catch any bib records without items attached because the sort will list nothing first. These can then be easily deleted in Guicat.

Expired patron managemen Choose a patron list and select the following: HOME LIBR = tce AND EXP DATE < 12-31-2002 (choose elements 9 and 1, then select =< to get a range of dates before a set time).

Patrons in a given PCode 4: This is handy if you bill patrons in a town separated by pcode 4
Choose a patron list then #9(home library)=(your location) AND #24 (PCode4)=(whatever you want). If you want to search for multiple pcode 4's it might look like this:HOME LIBR = bbh AND PCODE4 = 700 OR PCODE4 = 701. Then choose a patron range and run the list.

Note: You can run this list in milcat using patron barcodes when you select an index range.

  • Added 02/07/03

Finding Bad Email addresses: First create the following list:

  1. In Millennium, find an empty slot of sufficient size.
  2. select patron as list type, then select index from the menu on the left.
  3. In the new drop-down menu, select barcode, then enter barcode range as follows: 2****000000000 2****999999999.
    in the line below where you have Term Operator Type Field Condition Value A Value B enter the following: Skip operator. In the white box under Term, type P--Under field, double click and select Z-email address, under condition double click and select greater than, and type 0 in condition a.
  4. Name the list and click on search. Note: If you want to send the results via email, go to file, select printer, standard printer and change to email printer-enter your email address.
  5. When the list is finished, highlight it and select list records. A new box opens up. Double click on type and select patron. Then double-click in the field window and select patron. Now click on append and select patron as list type and Z=email address as field. Click on OK and wait until the list has run.
  6. A new box opens that allows you to then print to your email address. When the email is received, save as a text document and browse for errors.Common wrrors in emails are , instead of . www in front of emails, # or $ instead of @ con instead of com, etc.

Millennium Lists: In general, creating an item list is faster and sometimes easier in Millennium. If, for example you wanted to get a list of all items in a specific shelf location, this is how.

  1. Fire up Millennium and log in.
  2. Click on create lists.
  3. Enter your login/password.
  4. Find an empty slot and click on Search records
  5. Select item, then where it says range, choose index. In the menu bar that appears to the right of index, scroll down to barcode and enter the following. the first 5# of your barcodes followed by 9 zeros. In the next box, enter the first 5#s followed by 9 nines. It should look like this: 33248000000000 33248999999999
  6. Double click on type and select item. In the next box, double click and all your options should appear. Select #79-location, then =equal to for the condition and double click on value A and scroll until you find the shelf location you want to sort.
    Note: If you want to create a list of multiple shelving locations, click on append line, change AND to or and repeat step six.
  7. Go to the top and name your list before clicking on search.
  8. Run your search and it will be markedly quicker because it only looks at your barcode range.