Category Archives: browsing

Browsing SUNCAT

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In a recent release of SUNCAT we reintroduced browse functionality which had been missing since we moved over to the new interface last year.

Although searching is probably the more common way of finding a known item (especially since the arrival of Google), browsing can prove useful if you aren’t quite sure what it is you are looking for. It can lead to serendipitous and new discoveries and help you find out about the unknown unknowns!

You can start browsing by clicking on the “Browse� link underneath the search boxes on the service homepage/basic search page. There is also a link in the navigation section on the top left hand side of all the remaining service pages.

Click on the "Browse" link on the SUNCAT homepage

Click on the “Browse” link on the SUNCAT homepage

To start browsing just enter a term(s) or the first few letters of a term into the browse box and choose what you would like to browse by, e.g. by title, by subject, by publisher etc. and click on the “Browse� button.

Enter your term(s) and select an index

Enter your term(s) and select an index

You can browse by:

A list of results will open up beneath the browse box at the appropriate point in the alphabetical listing for the index you have chosen. So the top result might be the exact term(s) you entered, if it exists in SUNCAT, but if not, it will be the closest term after this alphabetically. For example, if you choose to browse by title and enter the term “beards� the results will start with “Beardsley news�. From here you can either use the “Forward� or “Back� navigation buttons to browse back or forward in the alphabetical listing.

The number of serial records associated with each result is displayed in the right hand column. Click on a result to view these records.

Click on a result to view the associated records

Click on a result to view the associated records

There are also two additional numerical indexes available ISBN and ISSN (the international unique identifiers for monographs and serials).

If you have any queries about the browse feature or SUNCAT in general please contact the EDINA Helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk.

New Release (3.2.0) of SUNCAT

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SUNCAT will be upgraded in the middle of next week with a release including a number of new features and fixes to some existing bugs.

The most significant new addition will enable you to browse as well as search SUNCAT. You can access the browse options by clicking on the link underneath the search boxes on the homepage or from the navigation menu on the left hand side of the other pages.

New browse feature

 

There are a range of indexes available for browsing including:

  • Exact Title
  • ISSN
  • Subject Headings
  • Author
  • Publisher

Entering a term and browsing on any of the indexes will take you to the nearest point on that index and enable you to browse alphabetically forwards and backwards.

Browse options

 

Other new features comprise:

  • Improvements to how the Institution and Format filters interact on the search results page. You will be able to filter your results to a particular institution AND you can then filter further to see just electronic or print items at that institution.
  • Improvements to the responsive design so that SUNCAT should now work better on your tablet or mobile.
  • Plus a range of fixes which will help the service run more smoothly and intuitively.

We hope you find the new functionality helpful and easy to use, please let us have any feedback via the “Contact” link at the foot of all the SUNCAT pages or via the EDINA helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk.