Z39.50 Search - AMICUS - Library and Archives Canada

Z39.50 Search

About AMICUS

Acceptable Use Policy

Specialized AMICUS Sites (more…)

To search AMICUS, you must select a database. For most AMICUS databases you need to register for a username and password. You can use the "LAC" database without registering.

Here are a few AMICUS search tips. For more configuration information, see the Z39.50 Guide.

	Tips for Searching AMICUS
Uppercase / lowercase	Most search terms can be entered in upper or lower case. Enter codes (e.g. language) in lowercase and library symbols in UPPERCASE.
Truncation	If truncation is set to 1 (right truncation) on your Z39.50 client, do not include the "?" in the search term. Tip: Set the truncation to 101 (truncation anywhere in term) to use wildcards in your search term. The wildcard "#" represents a single character; the question mark "?" represents 0 or more characters.
Punctuation	Punctuation in a term is ignored except in subject subdivisions.
Names	For personal names enter the surname and then the forename. Example: Author= munro alice. Enter corporate names in natural order. Example: Author= John Mills Consulting. If you are unsure of the word order in a name, try a Boolean search by name keywords.
Titles	Exclude initial articles. Example: Title= magus (not The magus)
Subjects	Use two hyphens before subdivisions. Example: Subject= jazz--brazil
Boolean searching	You can combine two or more terms with a Boolean operator to broaden or narrow a search. As AMICUS is a large database use care in broadening; avoid general terms (such as "canada") and prefer keyword phrases to single keywords.
Narrowing a Search	You can narrow a search with the attributes below; never search by them on their own. Date (of publication) Set the Structure attribute to "year" and the Relation attribute to an appropriate value such as "equal" or "less than". Geographic area Enter the coded values for the place in lowercase. Examples: Use "n" for North America, "n-cn" for Canada, "n-cn-on" for Ontario Holdings library symbols Enter the symbol in UPPERCASE. For a list of symbols see the ILL Directory. Example: Use BVAU for the University of British Columbia Language Enter in lowercase one or more language codes. Example: To find French works by an author, use fre. For a complete list of codes see MARC 21.
Keywords	AMICUS supports keyword searching of authors, names, titles, subjects, notes, publisher names. To search by keyword set the following attributes: Position = any position in field Completeness = incomplete subfield Structure = phrase OR single word You may combine keywords and exact terms in a query. Example: To find "The call of the wild" by Jack London you could enter the title keywords " " and "wild" and name exact "london jack"
Stopwords	AMICUS does not use stopwords. To find "Lord of the rings", you would search for "lord of the rings" in either exact or keyword searches.
Character set	Search terms are assumed to use the ANSEL character set. AMICUS ignores diacritics in searching; other non-ASCII characters in the ANSEL character set are converted to ASCII equivalents for searching. The character conversion rules are identical for processing the search term and for generating AMICUS indexes.

BIB-1 Use Attributes and their AMICUS equivalents

Important: The shaded areas represent secondary indexes (limiters) that must be used with a primary index. When constructing a search, type the primary index before using a secondary index (limiter) otherwise an "Unsupported query" error will occur.

Use Attribute	AMICUS command	Definition	Related MARC tags
4 - Title	TI (position attribute set to 1 "first in field")	Word or phrase identifying the item or a work contained in it. Exclude articles beginning a title. Example: For The Magus use magus	130, 210, 212, 222, 240 to 247, 400$t, 410$t, 411$t, 440, 700$t, 710$t, 711$t, 730, 740, 800$t, 810$t, 811$t, 830
4 - Title	TW (position attribute set to 3 "any")	Title keyword in AMICUS
7 - ISBN	BN	International Standard Book Number	020
8 - ISSN	SN	International Standard Serial Number	022
9 - LC control no.	LN	Library of Congress control number	010
13 - Dewey classification	DC	Dewey Decimal Classification number	082
14 - UDC classification	UC	Universal Decimal Classification number	080
16 - LC call number	LC	Library of Congress call number	050, 051, 055
17 - NLM call number	MC	National Library of Medicine call number	060
21 - Subject heading	SU (position attribute set to 1 "first in field")	Topic on which a work is focused.	600, 610, 611, 630, 650 to 658, 752, 754, 755
21 - Subject heading	SW (position attribute set to 3 "Any")	Subject Keyword	600, 610, 611, 630, 650 to 658, 752, 754, 755
31 - Date of publication	DAT	Date the item was published	008/07-10
47 - Subject subdivision	SDV	Extension to a subject heading indicating the form, place, time period or other aspect	All subject subfields except for $a
48 - No. national biblio.	CA	Character string that uniquely identifies a record in a national bibliography; at the Library and Archives Canada it refers to the Canadiana number	016
51 - No. music publisher	PN	Number assigned by a publisher to a sound recording or printed music	028
52 - Number db	AN	AMICUS database number	001
54 - Code-language	LAN	Language of the item	008/35-37
55 - Code-geographic area	GEO	Geographic area appearing or implied in the headings assigned to the item during cataloguing	043
56 - Code-institution	ILL	Symbol for the library with the item, also known as the ILL symbol. Example: OONL is the symbol for Library and Archives Canada.	852$a
59 - Place-publication	CTY	MARC code for the country, state or province where the item was published	008/15-17
60 - CODEN	CD	Six-character alphanumeric code assigned by Chemical Abstracts Service.	030
61 - Microform generation	MFG	Code specifying the generation of a microform	007/11
63 - Note	NT	Statement in which information such as extended physical descriptions, relationships or contents may be recorded.	018, 033, 034, 037, 250, 254 to 257, 260, 261, 265, 300, 306, 308, 310, 315, 321, 340, 350, 351, 355, 357, 359, 362, 490, 500 to 590, 753, 856
1001 - Record type	MAT	Material Type	Leader/06
1003 - Author	NA	Name of a person, corporate body, conference or meeting	100, 110, 111, 400, 410, 411, 700, 710, 711, 800, 810, 811
1003 - Author	NW	Name Keyword	100, 110, 111, 400, 410, 411, 700, 710, 711, 800, 810, 811
1004 - Author - name personal	NP	Personal name, pseudonym, title of nobility, nickname or initials	100, 400, 700, 800
1005 - Author - name corporate	NC	Organization or a group of persons that is identified by a particular name	110, 410, 710, 810
1006 - Author - name conference	NM	Meeting of individuals or representatives of various bodies for the purpose of discussing topics of common interest	111, 411, 711, 811
1011 - Date/time added to db	DEF	Date and time that a record was added to the database	008/00-05
1012 - Date/time last modified	TDT	Date and time a record was last updated	005
1016 - Any	AW	Any keyword	Applies to name, title, subject headings and notes
1018 - Publisher	PW	Organization responsible for the publication of the item	260$b
1021 - Bib-level	BIB	Single alphabetic character identifying the bibliographic level. Example: monograph	Leader/07


Created: 1999-08-01 Updated: 2004-01-01	Top of page	Important Notices