Status Update of the Locator

The Locator is the statewide union catalog used by the public and libraries to locate library items. It represents the holdings of 666 Iowa libraries and contains 3.6 million titles and represents more than 14.7 million items held in Iowa Libraries.

New Version of the Locator

The Locator database has been successfully migrated to the new database structure in Zebra from Index Data. 3.6 million titles were moved off the Horizon database to Zebra. Sub-standard records were not migrated which results in a much cleaner Locator database. The new Locator contains all the records that have been submitted to SILO through the SILO File Upload process since November 2009

In addition to the search indexes that were available in the old version of The Locator, this new version has six new indexes to search. The new indexes are: Author Keyword, Publication Year, Standard Number, UPC, OCLC, and Location. The database is also cleaner, with better, and more completely cataloged records.

Development continues on daily file upload processing and the file upload reporting.

 Adding Holdings and Records to The Locator

• Automated libraries can add MARC records and holdings information to the Locator by submitting files to SILO,  using the online submission method. These files will be collected and saved and added infrequently to the new Locator. Click here for instructions.
• OCLC libraries can continue the same as always. SILO continues to collect the files from OCLC and these records will be added (or deleted) during the infrequent record processing and database loads.
• Online add/delete can be used to account for individual cases or by non-automated libraries.
  

Total Database Replacements

Total Database Replacements are where a library's current holdings in the Locator are deleted and a fresh file of records from the library is added to it. SILO is not accepting TRDs at this time. Future development will include creating a system in which a library is able to manage this through a web-based interface without the intervention of SILO staff.

The New Version of The Locator and Interlibrary Loan

The new version of the Locator was made available within the SILO Interlibrary Loan system on March 2, 2009. See known issues of SILO ILL in this new environment.