Ricci Institute Library Online Catalog Help

Our library records appear in a wide variety of European and Asian languages. Web pages are displayed in Unicode (UTF-8) format, which allows the display of different scripts on the same page without character code conflicts or having to select one language. Note: Chinese characters are encoded in full (traditional) form only, as the vast majority of our Chinese language holdings are written in traditional script.

Browser Requirements and CJK issues

The online catalog was designed to be browser agnostic. Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or any recent browser should function properly. For Macintosh users Safari works nicely. However, to read CJK records you must have Chinese and/or other CJK fonts installed. PC users should install Arial Unicode (included with MS Office and other Microsoft applications). Arial Unicode is the most complete single font set for multilingual and CJK display. Some users may have other Unicode Han fonts such as MingLiU or PMingLiU, etc. or commercial packages such as TwinBridge, UnionWay, or NJStar. Macintosh users can install Asian fonts found on OS9 and OSX system disks. Because there are also Japanese and Korean records in the catalog, it’s recommended that you have these fonts installed as well. Once the proper fonts are installed, most newer browsers will automatically detect UTF-8 encoding and open the records correctly. Some older browsers or font packages may require tweaking the browser settings.

Search Basics

Searches are not case sensitive.

Ignore initial articles, e.g. The, A, An, L’, Lo, Le, etc.

Enter any known search element in the appropriate field or fields.
Use Keyword or Subject searches for the broadest retrieval range. For specific authors and titles add more elements in the search bar for more precise results.
Any part of a name, title, subject, or keyword may be entered.

Advanced Search further qualifies searches with details such as Record Type, Call Number, Library of Congress Catalog Card (LCCN) numbers, International Standard Book numbers (ISBN), and other precise information.     
After you query is input, hit ENTER or click on SEARCH.

Western European language searches: diacritics optional: names, titles, or terms that include accents or other diacritical marks may be searched with or without the marks themselves. For example, entering either “colecção” or “coleccao”, “Schütte” or “Schutte”, “répertoire” or “repertoire”, etc. will all return correct results.

Romanization systems: Hanyu pinyin is the standard romanization system for all Chinese vernacular key fields [Important: we aggregate words in pinyin. See Pinyin search below] Japanese records use the modified Hepburn system. Korean records currently use the McCune-Reischauer system (however we are examining the revised romanization system promulgated by the National Academy of the Korean Language, proclamation 2000-8).

Chinese searches: You may search for Chinese records using either Hanyu pinyin or Chinese characters directly. All key access points, e.g. Authors, Titles, Alternate Titles, Publisher Location, Publisher, Series, and specific Subject headings are searchable via either method.

Search by Chinese input: Search Chinese in full (traditional) form only (not simplied).

Enter the characters directly in the desired search field. (Most IME’s and third-party CJK software allow direct input into the browser search fields). Be sure your IME is set to input Unicode. Hit Enter or click Search.

Pinyin search: Important: Pinyin transcription of Chinese authors, titles, place-names, terminology, etc. are aggregated, meaning romanized as whole words rather than monosyllabic components. Note that Chinese personal names are always given in correct order and thus omit the comma.

Examples:

Xu Guanqqi (not Xu Guang Qi or Xu, Guangqi)

Li Zhizao (not Li Zhi Zao or Li, Zhizao)

Possessives and other particles (de, zhi, le) are separated.

Examples:

Zhongguo de lao fangzi (Old Chinese houses)

Zhongguo gudai de zidian (Ancient Chinese dictionaries)

Titles usually have reasonably clear word order. Examples:

Tianzhujiao dongchuan wenxian (not Tian zhu jiao dong chuan wen xian)

Tianzhu shiyi (not Tian zhu shi yi)

Hongloumeng (not Hong lou meng)  

Aggregation principles are based on the following sources: Basic Rules for Hanyu Pinyin Orthography (in DeFrancis and Mair, ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, University of Hawai’i Press, 1999, pp. 835-845), and N. Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China (v.1), Brill, 2001.

For further questions, please contact The Ricci Institute: ricci@usfca.du