Posts on library catalogs

Last fall, at the first annual Kidlitosphere Conference¹, I met Brian Mandabach at the bar before dinner. He told me about his book ...Or Not? (reviewed here). And, tactless nerd that I am, I blurted, "That title is going to kill the library catalog!"²

That's because many—perhaps most—library catalogs use Boolean operators in their search algorithm. Boolean operators include "and" (finds only records that include both search terms), "or" (finds records that include either term), "not" (finds records that include the term before, but not after, the "not"), and a few other such as "like" (which I don't totally understand).

Google, glorious Google, gets us in the habit of ignoring/forgetting Boolean operations because it only recognizes operators typed in all caps (AND, OR, NOT). But library catalogs don't typically differentiate based on capitalization.

"And" in a book title causes the fewest problems; its restrictiveness can only help narrow your search. "Or" in a title is slightly more problematic, in that it may make your list of search results longer than ideal. For instance, if I type in rain or shine, I'll not only find Rain or Shine, I'll also find Sounds of Rain: Poems of the Amazon and Let It Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals.

Then there's "not." "Not" in a book title will kill your catalog search.

How many times has a patron come up to the desk saying, "I'm looking for Bud Not Buddy, which won the Newbery Medal, but it didn't come up in the catalog. Is it possible that you, an absolutely amazing library in every other way, do not have it?" Too many to count. So many, in fact, that at our library we call this "the Bud Not Buddy problem."

Searching for bud not buddy turns up records that include "bud" but not "buddy." This means that searching for that exact title prevents you from finding the book in the catalog. The only way around it is to put quotation marks around the title so the catalog treats "not" as part of the search phrase, not as a Boolean operator.

Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of thing patrons just know—and I don't expect them to! Nor do I expect authors to stop giving their books titles that include "not."³ The most sensible thing, I think, would be for the library catalog makers to go the Google route and only treat "and", "or", and "not" as Boolean operators when they are typed in ALL CAPS—in other words, when the user intends for the words to be treated as operators.⁴

Typing the following titles into my library's catalog search box (without quotation marks around them) will break the search in the Bud Not Buddy fashion, bringing up titles that include what becomes before, but not after, the "not":

• I Am Not Joey Pigza - Catalog won't find titles including "Joey" or "Pigza."
• Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party - Catalog won't find titles including "dinner" or "party."
• Things Not Seen - Catalog won't find titles including "seen."

Even more amusing (in a diabolical way) are titles that begin with "not." The search results will include any title that doesn't include the words following "not," which makes for a very long results list!

• Not a Box - Catalog finds all titles that don't include "box."
• Not So Tall for Six - Catalog finds all titles that don't includeg "so," "tall," "for," or "six."
• Not Just a Witch - Catalog finds all titles that don't include "just" or "witch."

Finally, there are the titles with "not" at the end, which completely break the search engine (which demands that something—though not another Boolean operator—follow "not" in the query):

• Ready or Not - Catalog thinks, "Not what?"
• Magic or Not? - Catalog thinks, "Seriously. Not what?"
• Absolutely, Positively Not - Catalog thinks, "If you won't tell me what, I'm going to throw a hissy fit and not show you anything but a big, fat error message!"

TAKE-HOME LESSON: If you're searching your library's catalog for a book whose title includes "or" or "not" (especially "not"), put quotation marks around it.

¹Register now for the Second Annual Kidlitosphere Conference!
²Saving me from possibly fatal embarrassment, Brian told me I was not the first librarian who had mentioned this.
³However, I'd be hard-pressed to include "not" in the title of any book I write, knowing this.
⁴Or just keeps the cap-lock key permanently on; you can't help everybody.