Comparison of New & Classic Catalogs

You can search for terms in these fields in either interface.

Either interface will allow you to search for a phrase by enclosing search terms in quotes.

New:  Plural forms are automatically searched.  Example 1:  economy will match "economy" or "economies".  Wildcard characters ( * ! ? ) are not accepted.  Other suffixes such as "-ing" or "-ed" may not be automatically retrieved.

Classic:  Use a * or ? to represent any number of possible characters.  Use ! to represent a single unknown character.   Example 1:  econ* will match "economic," "economy," or "economical."  Example 2:  wom!n will match "women" or "woman".  Plural forms will not be automatically searched.

You can search by call number in either interface.  You may also browse call numbers in the new catalog by clicking "Browse Call Numbers." (In the classic catalog, you must use the Advanced Search page to find the "Call Number" search option.)

New:  If you have misspelled or miskeyed a search term, the system will alert you to the correct spelling with a linked "Did you mean...?" suggestion.

Classic:  No spelling or typo correction available.  If there are no matches for your term. you may browse an alphabetical index of all possible terms. 

New: Supports diacritics matching on the Latin-1 character set (traditional European accented characters).  Search terms without accented characters will match both non-accented words and relevant accented words, and vice versa.  Support for diacritics beyond Latin-1 is not currently enabled, but is under development.

Classic:   Supports full-spectrum diacritics matching with searches (search words without accented characters will match both non-accented words and relevant accented words, and vice versa).

New: You cannot specify what a title or subject begins with.  

Classic:  You may search for items where the title or subject begin with your specified keyword(s). With this type of search (as well as an "Author (last name first)" search), rather than returning results, you are brought to an alphabetical index of possible values from which you may browse.

New:  Boolean operators are not currently supported.  Terms separated by spaces are automatically issued with the AND operator.  Rather than using NOT, you may refine the scope of your search by using the Refine Your Search options or Search Within Results option (see "Working With Results" section below).

Classic:  You may use the operators AND, OR, or NOT between search terms.  See "Advanced Searching Techniques."

New:  On the left side of results pages, you will see several options to Refine Your Search.  Options include refining by Author, Subject, Format, Availability, and many more.  The number in parentheses next to each link indicates how many results will be found after narrowing.

Classic:   There are no options for narrowing.  You must go back and issue new search terms to get more specific results.

New:  Whether you have done a search or you have generated a set of results by browsing or refining, you may search within your result set for new search terms.

Classic:  You cannot search within a set of results.  You must go back and issue new search terms to get more specific results.

New:  The search box is accessible at the top of all results screens.  You can issue new searches from directly within results pages without having to go back to the main search screen.

Classic:  Once you have issued a search, you must go back to the main search screen to issue another.

New:  There is no limit to the number of results that can be retrieved.  In fact, you may issue a blank search (just hit "Search" with no terms entered).  All (currently nearly 4 million) items are returned and you may sort or refine those results as you wish.

Classic:  If your search returns more than 1,000 results, only the first 1,000 are retrieved and the message DISPLAY/SORT LIMIT EXCEEDED displays.  You also cannot sort results if there are over 1,000.

New:   From any search performed or combination of search terms and refinements, you can easily check the combined catalogs of the Triangle Research Libraries Network (Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, and NC Central) for matching items.  Near the number of results is the message "Want more?  See ___ results from Search TRLN."  Even if we do not have an item at Duke, you can easily request it through Interlibrary Loan.

Classic:   There is no connection to the TRLN catalogs.

New:  Sort by these fields by using the Sort by: pulldown menu.

Classic:   Sort by these fields by clicking the corresponding column header in the table of results.

New:  Keyword relevance is the basis of search engines like Google.  An item is considered to be more relevant to your search if your search terms appear more frequently in the record, or if they appear in key fields such as title.  Like Google, relevance is the default sorting for search results.

Classic:  Relevance is never considered in search results and it is not possible to sort by relevance.  Items in search results display no matter where or how frequently keywords appear, and results are returned in date order.

New:  You may sort results by popularity.  This option will re-order your results by how frequently they circulate.

Classic:   You cannot sort by popularity.

New:  Click "Search History" in the left-hand column from search results pages.  You can see your previous searches and the number of results retrieved for each.  You can revert to the results by clicking "Redo" or save the search (via URL) by clicking "Save."

Classic:   Click "Search History" from any page in the catalog interface.  You can see your previous searches and the number of results retrieved for each.  You can also revert to the results for previous searches by checking the box to the left and clicking "View" or save the search by clicking "Save."

New:  Click "Save Search" in the "You are searching for..." section on search result pages.  A permanent URL (permalink) will display.  This URL will return you to that set of results.

Classic:  You cannot get a persistent URL for a specific set of results.

New:  After clicking "Save Search" (see "Permalink" above), you may either manually add the URL to your browser bookmarks -- or -- Right-Click on the link in the message and select "Add to favorites" (or equivalent in other browsers).

Classic:  You cannot bookmark a result set in your browser.  

New:  Item summaries are frequently displayed on item pages.  The first part of the summary displays in the main item information; the full summary is available either by clicking "See More" or by clicking the "Summary" tab on the bottom of the item page.

Classic:   Item summaries are only occasionally displayed on item pages.

New:   You can see a table of contents for many items by clicking the "Table of Contents" tab on the bottom of the item page.  You may also read the first chapter of many books by clicking the "First Chapter" tab.

Classic:   Tables of contents and first chapters are only occasionally displayed on item pages.  This content is unformatted.

New:  Book jacket images (or album covers, DVD jackets, etc.) are displayed in search results and item pages.  Images can be turned off by clicking "Options" in catalog search results pages.

Classic:  Images are not available.

New:  Links to Google Book Search previews are included in the catalog record display whenever scanned previews are available.  See an example.

Classic:  Google Book Search previews are not available.

New:  MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) records are not available.

Classic: MARC records can be displayed by clicking "MARC tags" on the bottom of item pages.

New:   Each item can be accessed via a permanent, persisent URL.  Simply click "Permalink" from the right-hand menu on an item page.

Classic:  You cannot get a URL for an item.

New:  After clicking "Permalink" for an item (see "Permalink" above), you may either manually add the URL to your browser bookmarks -- or -- Right-Click on the link in the message and select "Add to favorites" (or equivalent in other browsers).

Classic:  You cannot bookmark an item in your browser.

New:  With an item URL (see "Permalink" above), you can link to an item from another web page or document (i.e., a syllabus, a Blackboard site or other course web site, a subject/course guide, or others).

Classic:  You cannot link to an item from another web page or document.

New:  There is no e-shelf feature, though items can be collected for later viewing by either using their permalinks to bookmark or link to them (see above) or by exporting them into Refworks or EndNote (see below).

Classic:  You can save items into an e-shelf for later viewing by clicking "Add to My e-shelf" from the item page.

New:  Choose "Email" from the right-hand menu on an item page.  Fill in your email address and click "Email This Record".

Classic:   Choose "Download/Mail" from the top menu on an item page.  Choose a format, scroll to the bottom, fill in your email address and click "Go."

New:  RefWorks is a personal online reference management service supported by Duke Libraries.  You can easily export item information into RefWorks by choosing "Export (RefWorks)" from the right-hand menu on an item page.

Classic:  It is possible to export item information into RefWorks, though it requires several steps.  From an item page, click Download/Mail.  In "Record Format," Select "Citation Manager" and click "Go."  Click the "Print/Save Records" button.  To import the file generated, open Refworks and follow steps for importing a record.

New:  EndNote is a personal online reference management service supported by Duke Libraries.  You may export item information into EndNote by choosing "Save (EndNote)" from the right-hand menu on an item page.  This will generate a file that can be saved and imported into EndNote.

Classic:   It is possible to export item information into RefWorks, though it requires several steps.  From an item page, click Download/Mail.  In "Record Format," Select "Citation Manager" and click "Go."  Click the "Print/Save Records" button.  This will generate a file that can be saved and imported into EndNote

New:  You can browse items by call number by clicking "Browse Call Numbers."  Once you have selected a call number range, you may sort the items in that range by call number (see "Sorting Results" above).  Using these actions together will simulate the physical arrangement of the books on library shelves as sequenced by their Library of Congress classification.

Classic:   You can browse an alphabetical list of call numbers by going to the Advanced Search page and clicking "Browse an Alphabetical Index."  Select "Call Nos. (All)" and enter either part of  a call number or a whole call number to begin browsing the index.  

New:   You cannot browse alphabetical indices of possible field values.

Classic:   When issuing an Author (last name first), Title begins with..., or Subject begins with... search, you are presented with a browseable alphabetical index of all possible values for that particular field.  You may also select "Browse an Alphabetical Index" (from Advanced Search) and indicate a point in an index from which to begin browsing.

New:  From the catalog home page, under "New Arrivals," you can click to browse items added to the libraries' collections in the past week, past month, or past 3 months. You may also refine any search result set to show only new titles by selecting the "New Titles" option in the left-hand "Refine Your Search" options.

Classic:  There are no options to browse or limit by new arrivals.

New:  Subscribing to an RSS feed from the catalog is a great way to get alerted when items of interest to you are added to the libraries' collections.  From any search or any set of results, you can get a feed by clicking the RSS icon next to the number of results retrieved.  You may also use this feed to pull in a dynamic linked list of new additions that match your interests that can be added to a Blackboard course site, subject/course guide, or other web site through a widget. 
- Read more about RSS & the new catalog in Library Hacks.

Classic:   RSS feeds are not displayed for searches or result sets.