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What’s the Worst that could Happen?Trouble-Shooting Your Voyager Queries

ELSUGOctober 8, 2009

Cathy SalikaCARLI

Will this query tell me how many items I have in each location?

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Moral: Always remove extra tables from your queries.

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Will this query tell me how many MFHDs I have in each location?

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Null is a special value

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This library has 14,470 MFHDs

0 MFHDs 13,071 MFHDs

The missing MFHDs have a value of Null

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1,399 MFHDs

Null is…

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… different from blank

… different from zero

Null means that the value has not been filled in.

And null fields are not counted with the Count function!

Moral: Never Count a field that might have a null value in it.

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The _ID fields usually do not have a null value.

Null is a special value

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This library has 14,470 MFHDs

0 MFHDs 13,071 MFHDs

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Moral: Use simple queries to check the results of complicated ones.

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Will this count the items that circulated during 2007?

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Moral: Dates default to 12:00 a.m. unless you specify a time.

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In criteria, you usually have to specify the day after the last date that you want:

Between #1/1/2007# And #1/1/2008#

Moral: You need to know what’s in the tables.

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When an item is discharged, the circ transaction moves from CIRC_TRANSACTIONS to CIRC_TRANS_ARCHIVE.

How am I supposed to know that for every table???

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The Data Dictionary!

CARLI’s version of the Data Dictionary is available on EL Commons.

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CIRC_TRANS… TablesCirculation transactions are recorded in CIRC_TRANSACTIONS until the item is discharged, after which they are moved to CIRC_TRANS_ARCHIVE. Consequently, the discharge… fields in CIRC_TRANSACTIONS are always blank.  When a transaction is archived, the value of circ_transaction_id is changed. In both tables, circ_transaction_id is assigned sequentially as a record is added.  For many circ statistics, you will want to combine data from these two tables. Endeavor provides an Access query called “Circulation Transactions (Charges)” which does this for you. From an Add Tables window in Access, click the Queries tab and you’ll find it. The charge_type and discharge_type fields have 2 values, N for Normal and O for Override. 

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PATRON_GROUP p. 2, 6, 7, 8, 11, 15, 20, 21, 28, 29, 30, 35 charge_limit number charge_limit_apply character 1 circ_cluster_id number patron_group_id number charged_status_display character 1 demerits_applies character 1 max_demerits number patron_group_code character 10 patron_group_display character 40 patron_group_name character 25 suspension_days number

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FISCAL_PERIOD p. 13The fiscal_period_id field in FISCAL_PERIOD can be used to link to fiscal_year_id field in LEDGER. This isn’t obvious from the names.

end_date date fiscal_period_id number fiscal_period_name character 25 start_date date

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BIB_MEDIUMThe medium field holds the first byte of the 007 from a bib record. Voyager uses this table to limit searches by “medium” in the staff clients or “additional format specification” in Web Voyage. bib_id number medium character 1

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ELINK_INDEX p. 36The starred fields in this table are in UTF-8. ELINK_INDEX is a very handy place to find URLs from various types of records.  Record_type is supposed to be interpreted by the ELINK_RECORD_TYPE table, but there are some errors. Actual values for record_type are A for Authority, B for Bibliographic, E for Electronic item, and M for MFHD. (ELINK_RECORD_TYPE has a row, I for Item, but you can’t have a URL in an item.)  The record_id is either an auth_id, a bib_id, an eitem_id, or a mfhd_id, depending on the value of record_type.  As a general rule, the link field is 856$u and the link_text field is subfields $z and $3. See Appendix B for more details.

Moral: The Data Dictionary is worth its weight in gold.

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Will this count the items that circulated during 2007?

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What does your library do when an item is lost?

Delete the item,delete the MFHD,and delete the bib?

Change the item status and/or location,opac-suppress the MFHD, andopac-suppress the bib?

Or a little of both?

Moral: You need to know your library’s practice.

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This is especially important with reserves.

Does this query count circulation in 2007 by item type?

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A view is a query that lives on the Voyager server.

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You can treat it like a table.

But it’s hard to know what it does unless you find the SQL on the server and read it, which isn’t easy.

In Voyager, view names end with _VW.

CIRCCHARGES_VW

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648 rows

1190 rows

Moral: Don’t use views, especially in circ and acq.

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These are bad:circcharges_vw circrenew_vwitem_vwissue_vwserials_vw

I like these:*class_vwmarc*_vw

The Views I Use

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The marc*_vw’s make fixed fields more accessible.

marcbook_vw marccomputer_vwmarcmap_vw marcmusic_vw marcserial_vwmarcvisual_vw

The *class_vw’s parse call numbers for you:

deweyclass_vw lcclass_vw nalclass_vw nlmclass_vw sudocclass_vw etc.

CALL_NO_TYPE and the *CLASS_VW’s

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In a MFHD, the 852 1st indicator is the class scheme. 0=LC 1=Dewey 8=Other etc.

This value usually goes into CALL_NO_TYPE in MFHD_MASTER.

CALL_NO_TYPE determines which *CLASS_VW a call number goes into.

So you think your library is all LC?

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With the *class_vw’s you can get nice statistics by class.

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Moral: Always check call_no_type before using the *class_vw’s.

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Why is Grouping turned on in this query?

If you need to de-duplicate, use Unique Values.

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Right click on the background of the design pane.Select Properties.Change Unique Values to Yes.

Moral: Use Group By like you really mean it.

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What do these queries do?

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Better?

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To enter a description…

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right-click on the query name and select Properties.

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Another way to annotate

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To create a Group…

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right-click anywhere in the Groups pane and select New Group.

Name the New Group

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To add a query to a Group

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Just drag & drop

To delete a query from a group

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…highlight it and hit the Delete key.Notice that you’re deleting the shortcut to the query,not the query itself.

Moral: Document! Document! Document!

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Reuse your queries so you can see trends.

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Moral: Sometimes it’s more important to be consistent than to be correct.

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Thank you!

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