Re: [IUG] Language subfield on 240 uniform title will not display in browse

["Bob Duncan" <duncanr at lafayette dot edu>]

On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:18:20 -0600
 "Joe Hewitt" <josephhewitt at missouristate dot edu> wrote:
> The language subfield of the 240 field does not consistently display in our
> catalog.
>
> For examples, search http://swan.missouri.edu in the author index for "hegel
> georg wilhelm friedrich 1770 1831".  If you click on item #4 titled 
> *Ästhetik.
> *, it takes you to *Ästhetik. English.
>
> *A check of our indexing rules shows that the 240 field indexes in the Title
> index as: 240 Rem h6.  Now, I interpret this to mean that everything except
> subfields h & 6 will be indexed and appear in a browse that includes
> t-tagged fields.
>
> Can anyone tell me why my language subfields do not appear in the OPAC
> display?

Indexing rules have little to do with what appears.  What appears for a record 
on the results screen from the exact search example you provided is controlled 
by what you have in your briefcit.html file;  what appears on the actual 
record display is controlled by the webpub.def file.

Your briefcit file contains the following line for displaying the title:

<!--{linkfieldspec:VbT}-->

...where the uppercase T means the system grabs the "best" title, which I 
guess it decides is just the 240|a (and not subfield l).  On result #6 in the 
same list, "English" displays because it's in the 240|a, and not the 240|l. 
In result #11, the title is coming from the 700|t, and the system appears to 
throw in the 700|l and 700|f for good measure (why is beyond me).

You could try adjusting your briefcit file by specifying MARC fields/subfields 
for the title display, but absent the ability to use conditional statements in 
briefcit, I don't think you can ever get it perfect for all situations.  (And 
using the uppercase T does nice things in R2007 when the search is a title 
search.)

Some sites like to include fieldspec tokens for specific fields in div 
containers---this has the advantage of not creating white space if the field 
does not exist in the record, but the (possible) disadvantage of displaying 
extra information that might confuse when the field does exist.

Bob Duncan

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Robert E. Duncan
Systems Librarian
David Bishop Skillman Library
Lafayette College
Easton, PA  18042
duncanr at lafayette dot edu
http://library.lafayette.edu/