How to Create a Customized Union List Using SERHOLD Report Data

By Andrea Lynch
Network Assistant
Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library

Have you ever wondered what you could do with the delimited SERHOLD reports you see in DOCLINE? SERHOLD reports in delimited format can be imported into Access, Excel, or a similar program. Then you can rearrange the data and manipulate it in other ways. For example, you can customize DOCLINE's Union List Report and reformat it to meet your specific needs.

Follow the instructions below in order to reformat SERHOLD report data. For these instructions, we used the following applications and versions: Netscape^® Communicator version 4.79, Microsoft^® Internet Explorer version 5.50, Microsoft Notepad version 5.0, and Microsoft Access 2002 (Office XP). You may need to adapt these instructions if you are using different software. Please refer to the DOCLINE FAQ -- Availability of Union List Products web page (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/doc_union_list.html) to see when Union List products are updated.

Copying SERHOLD report data

Open Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer
Go to the DOCLINE website http://docline.gov and login using your UserID and Password
Select SERHOLD from the main menu
Select Reports from the submenu
On the left-hand panel, select Union Lists under Union List Products. (If you want to use your own library's holdings, submit a Holdings by library report with Delimited format designated as the format. Next, substitute that report for the Union List report in the following steps.)
To get the report data:

Using Netscape Communicator
- Click on the "Delimited Format Holdings for..." link.
- Then click inside the frame which contains the report and wait until the report is completely downloaded. At the bottom panel of the web browser screen, it will say "Document: Done" when the file is completely downloaded.
- On Netscape's main menu, click on Edit and then Select All.
- Now either press Ctrl+C buttons down or go to Edit on the web browser main menu and select Copy. Your data is now added to your computer's clipboard.
Using Internet Explorer
- Right click on the "Delimited Format Holdings for..." link and select Save Target As.... Keep the default file name or designate your own and then save it. (Note: Remember to write down or make a mental note of where you saved the file.)

Copy/Save the SERHOLD report data as a text file

If you used Netscape, the data on the clipboard must be saved as a text file. Open a plain text application window, such as Notepad or WordPad, create a new document, select Edit, and then Paste. Next save the document as a text file, i.e., with a .txt extension.

If you used Internet Explorer, the file is saved as an .rptl file. If you can't find it, use Windows Explorer. You will need to open the report and save it as a text file. To do this, first open a plain text application window, such as Notepad or WordPad, and then open the SERHOLD report file you saved in DOCLINE. Then save the document as a text file.

Import the file into Microsoft Access

Open Microsoft Access and create a new database by selecting File, New, Blank Database from the various menus and sub-menus. Once you have named and created this new database, you will need to import the text file of the SERHOLD report. Please follow these steps in order to complete this task:

Select File from the main menu of Access
Select Get External Data and then Import... from the submenu
Identify the file, select it, and click on the Import button. If you are unable to locate the file, you may have to change the Files of type to Text Files or search for the text file using Windows Explorer.
The Import Text Wizard will open
Select the radio button next to Delimited - Characters such as comma or tab separate each field (set as the default), then click on the Next button
At the next window, choose the comma delimiter as the field that separates the data. Click the checkbox next to First Row Contains Field Names and select the quotation mark (") option for the Text Qualifier pull-down menu, click the Next button. If an information box pops-up, which states "The first row contains some data that can't be used for valid Access field names...", click on the OK button.
The next window will ask if you would like the data in a new table (this is the default selection) or if it should be added to an existing table. Choose the most appropriate selection (which will be to add the data in a new table), and then click on the Next button.

Once at the next window and if you would like to keep all the fields in the report, click on the Next button and move to Step 9. If you do not want to keep all of the fields of the SERHOLD report, this screen will be useful to you. Here is the list of fields that are included in the union list delimited holdings report:

1. Library Name	11. Frequency
2. City	12. Continuation Notes
3. State/Province	13. Holdings
4. LIBID	14. Retention Policy
5. NLM Unique ID	15. Acquisition Status
6. ISSN	16. Physical Format
7. Title	17. Completeness
8. Publisher	18. Commitment Level
9. Place of Publication	19. Date Added/Modified
10. Publication Dates	20. Encoding Level

For the union list report field definitions, please visit the following location: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/docline/docline_manual/serhold/.
If you do not want to import all of the fields of the report, locate the unwanted field by scrolling to the right, click on the field name at the top of the column and select the checkbox for Do not import field (Skip). Repeat this for each field you do not want to import.

The next screen of the Import Text Wizard is for selecting the primary key for the table. There are three selections: Let Access add primary key, Choose my own primary key, and No primary key. The default is set to the first choice, Let Access add primary key. This will add an additional field to the table that will be defined as the primary key for the table. This selection is recommended as you want to have a unique identifier field in your table.
The final screen of the Import Text Wizard requests the indication of the table name. Once you decide on a name for the table, click on the Finish button; you are done with importing the report data into Access. A message box will pop-up indicating that the file was successfully imported into the database.

Now that the data is in a table, you can create a query and/or a report and print out the newly formatted report with the fields that you like.

Please feel free to contact PSRML with any questions you may have at (800) 338-7657 or via email at psr-nnlm@library.ucla.edu.

[Editor's Note: For more information about SERHOLD reports, go to the DOCLINE Online Manual, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/docline/docline_manual/serhold/report_overview.html.]

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How to Create a Customized Union List Using SERHOLD Report Data

By Andrea Lynch Network Assistant Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library

Copying SERHOLD report data

Copy/Save the SERHOLD report data as a text file

Import the file into Microsoft Access

By Andrea Lynch
Network Assistant
Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library