Offering the Polaris Database as a Remote Target

In addition to setting up other sites as remote targets for Polaris to query, you can offer your Polaris database as a remote target to other sites to search via Z39.50. This feature allows material vendors, for example, to search your database for bibliographic records when creating your shelf-ready items. Give the remote sites the IP address and logon information for your database. For a list of the Bib-1 use attributes assigned to search access points, see Bib-1 Use Attributes in Polaris Searches.

Important:
[DatabaseName.] is required if the target Microsoft SQL Server database is installed as an instance. This is always the case, for example, for Polaris Hosted customers. Set [DatabaseName] to the Microsoft SQL Server instance name, followed by a period.

You can offer the following Polaris targets:

Note about characters sets:
Remote sites should use the naming conventions shown below to retrieve UTF-8-encoded results. To retrieve the results in MARC_8 encoding, append “MARC_8” (using an underscore character, not a hyphen) to the end of the database name, for example, [DatabaseName.]PACMARC_8

[DatabaseName.]PAC - Returns bibliographic records in the results list; embedded holdings tags are generated for all linked item records that are set to display in PAC. Any holdings tags (949s, 852s, and so forth) that already exist in the bib record are excluded. If a linked item record is suppressed from display in PAC, it will not appear as an embedded 852 tag in the returned record. If a bibliographic record is suppressed from display in PAC, it will not appear in the results list.

If an item is linked to a Purchase Order (PO) line item, Polaris fabricates a subfield $e for the 852 tag that contains the PO line item ID and PO line item segment number, separated by a hyphen. This feature accommodates vendors who cannot use enriched EDI to obtain this information, which they need to provide full MARC records with embedded holdings for shelf-ready cataloging.

Tip:
Polaris fabricates 99x tags in the bibliographic record for internal use in PAC. Because 99X tags in Polaris records are fabricated and proprietary, they are suppressed from the PAC results set.

[DatabaseName.]ODC - Similar to [DatabaseName.]PAC, but disregards the items’ Display in PAC settings and returns all linked item records that have an item status of final and a non-suppressed item circ status for the assigned branch. This target supports opening day collections for new branches or branches that are replacing large portions of their collections, perhaps due to fire or flood. On-order items are included but can be suppressed from PAC until branch renovations are complete, the items are shipped, and they can be circulated.
[DatabaseName.]BR - Returns bibliographic records in the results set, including any holdings tags (949s, 852s, and so forth) that appear in the bib record. Embedded holdings tags for linked item records are not generated.
[DatabaseName.]BT - Suppresses all holdings, both embedded holdings tags and linked item records, regardless of their status, from the bibliographic records in the results set. This is useful, for example, for vendors who are supplying full MARC records with holdings (949s, 852s, and so forth) that should not conflict with existing holdings information in your bibliographic records.
[DatabaseName.]AR. - Returns authority records.