The Czech Literary Bibliography databases are accessible via the VuFind central search engine. Currently the system provides for a unified search in all CLB bibliographical databases. We are preparing the gradual integration of other CLB resources (the Czech Literary Figures database, Literary Awards database and the like).
Any comments or remarks are welcome at clb@ucl.cas.cz , and errors may also be reported directly in the form of comments for individual records.
Each individual record in the Czech Literary Bibliography database is annotated and contains information about the descriptive unit divided into individual fields and subfields. Some fields are mandatory (highlighted orange in the table below), while others are filled in at the discretion of the record processor (usually with what is known as a factual description).
All relevant fields (author and especially the fields for subject / factual description) have been systematically linked to what is known as the set of national authorities since the transition to the MARC21 format, i.e. since 2012, thanks to which it is possible to distinguish, for example, namesakes and homonymous terms. Older records were linked to the set of national authorities during the conversion. If this was not possible, this information is added manually during database editing.
| Name of field | ISIS – older | ISIS – younger | MARC21 | Note |
| System number | X | X | X | After conversion new, old in 035. |
| Type of record | X | X | X | For “ISIS – older” format, added during conversion. |
| Titles | X | X | X | In MARC21 a number of options, in ISIS a note is often used. |
| Authors | X | X | X | Unified during conversion in line with MARC21 rules. |
| Author’s role code | X | X | X | Unified during conversion in line with MARC21 rules. |
| Info on liability | X | X | Unified during conversion in line with MARC21 rules. | |
| Name of source | X | X | X | Unified during conversion in line with MARC21 rules. |
| Bibliographical citation | X | X | X | In ISIS individual parts originally as separate fields. Unified during conversion in line with MARC21 rules.. |
| Designation of publication | X | X | ||
| Publisher’s details | X | X | X | |
| Physical description | X | X | ||
| Series | X | X | X | |
| Note | X | X | ||
| Form/genre | X | X | X | A controlled vocabulary with a lmited number of values in an ISIS database. |
| Language | X | X | For ISIS – older format supplemented during conversion on the basis of the source document. | |
| Country of publication | X | For ISIS format supplemented as circumstances permit on the basis of the journal title or the place of publication. | ||
| Annotations | X | X | X | |
| Specification of parts | X | X | For ISIS – older format, may be in the annotation. | |
| Subject – Linked works | X | X | X | For ISIS – older format, the second and subsequent work in the annotation, semi-automatically detached. |
| Subject – Action | X | X | For ISIS – older format, may be in the annotation. semi-automatically detached. | |
| Subject – Individuals | X | X | X | |
| Subject – Institutions | X | X | For ISIS – older format, may be in the annotation. semi-automatically detached. | |
| Subject – Chronological term | X | For ISIS – older format, not monitored, for ISIS –younger format supplemented on MDT basis. | ||
| Subject – Geographical term | X | or ISIS – older format, in the annotation, for ISIS – younger format as keywords, detached during conversion as a separate field. | ||
| Thematic groups | X | The original factual description system based on what are known as bibliographical annual anthologies, amended during conversion into factual terms expressed in words | ||
| Keywords | X | X | X | For ISIS format a record is made of those factual descripton values which could not be detached elsewhere, in MARC21 only those values in the actual factual description which are not in the authorities database. |
| MDT | X | X | For ISIS –older format not used for ISIS – younger format used either as MDT or a keyword. After conversion to MARC21 used in all cases. | |
| Conspectus group | X | Only for entries in MARC21. | ||
| ČNB No. | X | Only for entries in MARC21. | ||
| ISBN | X | Only for entries in MARC21. sporadically for ISIS –younger format. | ||
| ISSN | X | |||
| Content type | X | Only for entries using RDA standards (as of 1.5.2015). | ||
| Media type | X | Only for entries using RDA standards (as of 1.5.2015) | ||
| Medium type | X | Only for entries using RDA standards (as of 1.5.2015) | ||
| URL address | X | Only for entries in MARC21. |
Database searches may be performed in several different ways:
It is still possible to export a limited number of 200 records in MARCXML and binary MARC21 formats from the system. One interesting alternative is to export the data to PDF format via the “Print” menu. The user can also send the search to e-mail or save it in the user account.
Registration in the system is not mandatory, but it enables you inter alia to store your own searches within the system, create a set of favourite records, attach comments to individual records and return to older queries.
The system allows you to choose from about thirty language alternatives for the interface (in the “Language” menu top right), set the number of individual records per page and sort the records from the youngest / oldest (up to the day level in all cases), according to relevance, article title or author name.
Based on the presence of identifiers such as ISSN, ISBN and Czech National Bibliography numbers, data is presented via the Obálkyknih.cz service on other related materials, especially book and magazine covers.
The data currently being processed, especially for the Literary Internet Bibliography and the Samizdat Bibliography, is systematically supplemented by links to the original location of the given document in the network, or also to its archive copy at the Webarchiv.cz portal.
Use the ? sign to replace exactly one character in a search term.
Example: To find “text” or “test”: te?t
Use the * sign to replace any number of characters in a search term.
Example: To find everything containing test, testy, testovat etc.: test*
Wildcards may also be inserted in the middle of a search term: te*t
Note: Wildcards * and ? cannot be used at the beginning of a search term.
Use the ~ sign (tilde) at the end of a single-word expression.
Example: For all words similar to zrno use the following: zrno~
To specify the similarity you may use another parameter. Its value must be between 0 and 1, and the closer the value comes to 1, the more similar the search terms are.
Example: zrno~0.8
The default value for this advanced parameter is 0.5.
Use the ~ sign (tilde) at the end of a multiword expression.
Example: To search for the words divadlo and Topol, at most ten words from each other: “divadlo Topol”~10
To search within a particular range use braces { }.
Example: to search for words beginning in A, B or C: {A TO C}
Numerals may be used in the same way.
Example: To search by years: [2000 TO 2003]
To increase the weight (significance) of a word in comparison with others the ^ sign (caret) may be used.
Example: In the expression: divadlo Topol^5 greater emphasis will be placed on the word “Topol”.
Boolean operators enable you to combine queries using logic. This catalogue is able to process the following logical operators: AND , +, OR , NOT and –.
Note: These operators must always be written in CAPITAL letters
The AND operator is the default binding operator. This means that if you do not use any operator, the AND operator will always be used. The AND operator returns results that contain all search terms.
Example: To search for records that contain the words “divadlo” and “Topol”, use the query: divadlo Topol or divadlo AND Topol.
The “+” operator means that the subsequent word in the record must always be found.
Example: to search for records that must contain the word “divadlo” and may contain the word “Topol”, use the query: +divadlo Topol.
The OR operator means the results will include records containing at least one of the words entered.
Example: To search for records containing the expression “divadlo Topol” or just “Topol”, use the query: “divadlo Topol” OR Topol.
The NOT operator excludes from the results those records that contain the word designated after the NOT operator.
Example: To search for all records containing the word “divadlo”, but not containing the word “Topol” use the query: divadlo NOT Topol
Note: The NOT operator cannot be used if there is only one expression in the search term. The following query will not bring up any results: NOT divadlo.
The – operator will exclude from the results those records containing the expression that follows this operator.
Example: To search for all records containing the word “divadlo”, but not “Topol” use the query: divadlo -Topol.
Have you not yet found the information you require, and do you need any advice? You may consult us at clb@ucl.cas.cz.
