Want to see how this searchable bibliography works?

(Students cluster around three hogs. Colorado State University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Historical Photographs Collection.)

Database Information

(We use "bibliography" and "database" interchangeably on this page)

Organization of the Database
Explanation of Field Names
Creating this Searchable Bibliography

Organization of the Database

The records that you can access at this site were compiled with the bibliographic software called Endnote. Most records were imported into Endnote from either Worldcat (an OCLC database) or SAGE (CSU's catalog.) In the importation process, these records passed through a filter, sorting the data to conform to Endnote's fields. The Endnote fields utilized by our records are:

Author
Secondary Author
Title
Secondary Title
Short Title
Edition
Year
Date
Publisher
Place Published
URL
Extent of Work
Public Information
Description
Type of Work
Reference Type
Original Publication
Scale
ISBN/ISSN
Annotation
Keywords
Accession Number
Call Number
Abstract
Notes

If, for example, you want to know more about wheat growing in Colorado, the searchable bibliography can check some of the above-mentioned fields for occurances of the work "wheat." To do this, use one or more of the three search boxes: Keyword, Author and Title.

(This is a sample; the real search box is here.)

The Keyword box checks the following 15 fields (from the list of 25 above) for the occurance of "wheat": Author, Title, Type of Work, Original Publication, Secondary Title, Secondary Author, Short Title, Keywords, Abstract, Notes, Place Published, Publisher, Alternate Title, URL and Edition.

If you search the Author Box, it checks these 2 fields: Author and Secondary Author.

If you search the Title Box, it checks these 4 fields: Title, Secondary Title, Short Title, and Alternate Title.

Explanation of Field Names

Different databases vary in how they name fields for the same kind of information. Should a record's identity as a map be labeled "type of work," "description, " "reference type," or something else? In this searchable bibliography, most of the field names are derived from Endnote field names.

The results page for each record will display all of the information that we have. If you begin using the bibliography to search a term, you will notice that the results page for each record will typically not contain all 25 fields listed above. This is because the record lists only fields that contain data; fields with nothing in them will not be shown.

While some fields are simply not shown, other field names may diverge slightly form the above-given list. For example, the "Author" field may be replaced by "Cartographer." This happens when Endnote has categorized a record as a specialized reference type-- in this case, as a map. The reference type of the majority of records in this bibliography is "Generic," although some records are classified as either "Map," "Electronic Source," or "Audiovisual." Each of these four reference types has its own set of field names. Sometimes they all share the same name for a field-- for example, "Title" and "Publisher" don't vary-- while other fields will have unique names for each reference type-- "Author" for Generic records and "Cartographer" for Map records.

Creating this Searchable Bibliography

As you recall from an earlier section of this page, bibliographic records were imported into an Endnote database. Once the Endnote database was compiled, duplicate records were removed. Next, records from the database were sorted by reference type because (as previously noted) each of the four reference types has its own set of field names. Once broken down into these four groups, the records were imported into an Excel spreadsheet.

The plan was to load the Excel files into a php language database. In order to do this, loader instructions were written for each reference type.

The search screen was developed using HTML code. When you use the search screen, the information you enter is forwarded to a PHP script which searches a MySQL database and retrieves a list of records that match the search criteria...getting you a results page.

note: Words smaller than three characters-- such as be, an, a, and up-- are not indexed in this database and therefore cannot be searched.

(Young woman demonstrates the difference between a wild beet and a "tame" beet.
Through the Leaves , Great Western Sugar Company, March, 1942, 12.)