RFC02: Allow “ocn” as an alternative to “othercallnumber” (OCN)

See https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/%22Your_books%22_Search
This is not a big deal, but would be nice as it makes the SQL read more easily as it is a lot shorter.

No. Nobody would have any idea what was being talked about.

If the user is writing an SQL type query then they will know what is meant by OCN:

>3 JonathonL88: What user is writing what SQL query? Are you referring to search? And where should this alternative abbreviation be?

LT has a small team of developers. And even far bigger teams are not going to develop features they do not see benefiting a significant portion of their users. While anyone is free to suggest any unicorn of a feature, they need to be something generally useful to have an even remote chance of being implemented at some point.

I believe it is possible to set up your keyboard to create your own shortcuts if you don'r want to type certain phrases out. I see no reason why a properly named field should be made obscure because you are too lazy to type it out.

1: All my suggestions are fairly minor extensions/changes to the current system

2: I am well aware that the LT dev team is small and I have taken that into account

3: I use the term SQL as that is what it looks like, and it seemed the best way to describe the search box dialogue. It is actually using Elastic search but it appears to be very similar to SQL.

so you just want OCN as an alias to facilitate more complex searches of your library, using the search box provided. (or, i suppose, typing the whole search url into the address bar)

sounds reasonable to me.

A quick search of the web comes up with dozens of meanings for OCN that do not include this one. As a tag it seems to refer to Oncology Certified Nurse, one of the main ones listed on line.

If you allow this, are you going to allow any other shortcut that somebody wants? What are you going to do when two people want the same short cut for different things?

Nobody is going to search LT and expect a field for Oncology Certified Nurse. But there is a field called Other Call Number and being able to use OCN as an abbreviation for it seems like a reasonable and easy request

>8 MarthaJeanne: It's in the context of modifiers for the search box, though, where you have to type "othercallnumber:###". An alias of OCN for that use is what seems reasonable to me, not changing it elsewhere. If any other fields are particularly long, I would support a shorter alias for them, too. (PubDate for publicationdate, perhaps)

If the Other Call Number were added to the drop-down selector, I would be more ambivalent about a shorter alias. As it is, I think it's a reasonable request, though I can't speak to the ease of implementation.

I think there is a "Recommend Site Improvements" for making the search field longer. I can see why othercallnumber is suggested abbreviated, maybe allowing a larger search field would do?

I'm often doing stuff like searching for

301917895 OR 301969021 OR 301969096 OR 301975797 OR 301986073 OR 301986108 OR 302013421 OR 302047277 OR 302048247 OR 302068780

to find a specific subset of my books that I've found using the TSV export file.

I would point out that OCN also stands for OCLC Control Number, which is a bibliographic identifier. So changing "other call number" to "OCN" could definitely result in some confusion.

>11 bnielsen: I have already requested a longer search field in another site improvement request

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Also if you posting "301917895 OR 301969021 OR 301969096 OR 301975797 OR 301986073 OR 301986108 OR 302013421 OR 302047277 OR 302048247 OR 302068780", did you realise you put that directly into the URL of your browser.

Save the search as a browser bookmark, and then edit as required.

>13 JonathonL88: Yes, and similarly you can construct an url that is longer than what you can put into the search field. I'm not sure if it still works or if it is timing out to avoid attacks. I came across some of that the last time I tried using it, so I just clipped it into smaller pieces :-)

If you do a short search, you get to the search page. There is a much larger search field there with other search options.

>15 MarthaJeanne: I am sorry I do not understand how you get to this larger search field.

>15 MarthaJeanne: That's for site search, though. These RSIs about Other Call Number have been talking about the catalogue search in Your Books.

>12 lilithcat: OCN also being a common bibliographic abbreviation is a valid objection. Perhaps the field could be renamed Alternate Call Number with an abbreviation in the search field of ACN.

>19 jjwilson61: ACN has many more meanings listed than OCN

>20 MarthaJeanne: But are any of them things that might make sense as keywords in the LT search box?

>13 JonathonL88:
librarything.com/catalog.php?view=bnielsen&collection=-1&deepsearch=21884680%20OR%2021884704%20OR%2021884792%20OR%2021884832%20OR%2021885153%20OR%2021885185%20OR%2021885230%20OR%2021885272%20OR%2021885436%20OR%2021885590%20OR%2021885780%20OR%2021885813%20OR%2021885851%20OR%2021885895%20OR%2021885962%20OR%2021886174%20OR%2021886199%20OR%2021886317%20OR%2021894662%20OR%2021894736%20OR%2021963071%20OR%2022255741%20OR%2022428959%20OR%2022429284%20OR%2022451053%20OR%2022451056%20OR%2022667072%20OR%2023106257%20OR%2030200812%20OR%2030200840

works fine for finding 30 books in my library, but I don't think I can input it via the search field.

21884680 OR 21884704 OR 21884792 OR 21884832 OR 21885153 OR 21885185 OR 21885230 OR 21885272 OR 21885436 OR 21885590 OR 21885780 OR 21885813 OR 21885851 OR 21885895 OR 21885962 OR 21886174 OR 21886199 OR 21886317 OR 21894662 OR 21894736 OR 21963071 OR 22255741 OR 22428959 OR 22429284 OR 22451053 OR 22451056 OR 22667072 OR 23106257 OR 30200812 OR 30200840

Ah, yes I can. (I think I discovered this once before, but I forget it from time to time, because it is so weird to find.)

Via Home / Search your books the search box is limited to about 12 books. Via Your books / Search (i.e. the tiny input field) I'm allowed to enter the whole 30 books.

So tiny input field gives a long length for the search input. While the large input field gives a very limited length.

I'm confused. The search syntax is othercallnumber not OCN or ocn.

As the original poster, I was not aware of the significance of othercallnumber to a librarian.

However, in the wiki entry for "Your books search"
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/%22Your_books%22_Search
you have mds: for Melville Decimal Classification

lcc: for lcclassification:

and all I was suggesting that ocn: be allowed as a shortened form of othercallnumber:

>24 JonathonL88:

I think the bigger problem with your suggestion is that in libraries OCN also stands for OCLC Control Number. So your abbreviation would create an undesirable ambiguity.

OCLC has its own field in LibraryThing and it is called OCLC, not OCN.

The proposal of using OCN as an abbreviation for othercall number was limited to creating a "Search filter". So very specific use in a very specific way in a very specific area.

Whilst colloquially, between librarians they may refer to OCN for OCLC, I do not think that is reason enough to stop the proposal in this instance.

>26 JonathonL88: But the common abbreviation for the OCLC call number is OCN, so much so that seeing just the title of the thread, that's what I'd expect it to refer to. If other call number is to get its own abbreviation to use in search, it should be something people will not confuse with something else entirely

So, I appreciate the request here, but it's not going to happen. The arguments against are good ones, and it's work I'd rather not waste time on when it's easy to do it either way.