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About the Database |
Genesis of the Project. These novels were acquired in conjunction with the gift of the authors' manuscripts. Past practice has often been to list published materials within a manuscript finding aid. However, as the number of these novels grew it became clear that more direct access to them would benefit researchers. Because of the language issues with the many translated titles it was clear that traditional cataloging would require more resources than current staffing permitted and a separate database, with a collection-level link in josiah was created as an access tool.
Methodology. The database for this collection was created in FileMaker Pro 4.1. Claris Dynamic Markup Language (CDML) tags were used within html tags to create search, search results, record detail and search error format files which query and retrieve data from the database. Data entry was done by Reader Services student assistants, Tien-yee Mi-Mi Chen, '02., Jennifer Stevenson, '04 and Michelle Niemann, '02. Timothy Engels, Senior Library Associate Specialist, Manuscripts, identified and located published works within the manuscript collections. Jean Rainwater created the database and designed the web site. The database was mounted on the Library's Windows NT server by Joseph Mancino, Senior Library Associate Specialist, Systems.
Organization And Contents of the FileMaker Pro Database:
Author. There are four primary authors: Barbara Keiler, Jo Ann Ferguson, Patricia Coughlin and Sylvia Baumgarten. Other authors are represented because they appear in anthologies or journals with the primary authors.
Pseudonym. Only names known to be pen names are included in this field. For authors other than the primary authors it was not always possible to establish the status of the author's name as it appears in the publication. In those cases names were assumed to be 'real' and appear in the Author field.
Title and Translated Title. The English-language title of the first edition is entered for all works and appears in the search results page. The translated title, if there is one, appears in the record detail. Individual titles for works anthologized together appear in the this field. A listing of the contents of anthologies appears in the Note field.
Language. The database contains translations into 15 foreign languages: Czech (8), Danish (6), Dutch (25), Finnish (2), French (15), German (30), Greek (10), Hungarian (3), Italian (30), Japanese (36), Korean (1), Polish (5), Portuguese (6), Spanish (22), Swedish (16). Two hundred twenty-four titles are in English.
Cover Summary. The plot summary which appears on the back cover of these works is included in the database except for titles in Greek, Japanese and Korean. This summary is keyword searchable.
Series Title and Series Number. In
Guidelines for Writers the Harlequin site contains brief descriptions of the unique characteristics which differentiate the various current imprint series.
Publisher Over 40 publishers' imprints are recorded.
City and Country. Place of publication
Date. Date of publication
Edition. First editions, foreign editions and journal editions of works are identified in this field.
Note. This field contains information about works issued together in anthologies or journals and any other information which is not covered by another field.
Journal Title, Volume and Issue Date. There are 42 works in the database which appear in serial publications
Autographed? Many of the titles were autographed by the authors before being sent to Brown.
ISBN. The ISBN number is included if it appears on the publication. For journal publications if there is an ISSN number it is entered here.
Box and Barcode. These materials are in off-site storage and are retrieved by box and barcode numbers.
Illustration from: Judith Arnold, La mujer del retrato, Madrid: Harlequin, 1985.