With the new media type analysis feature of BookWhere 6 it is even easier to locate records for CDs and DVDs in your collection.

These types of records have been historically difficult to locate as most do not have ISBN or any commonly indexed numeric identifier. Searching for the record by title can result in a large number of false matches, many of which may not even be in the desired format.

In this article we will show how you can search for DVDs and CDs in a reliable and efficient manner.

Music CDs

1. Ensure your favorite databases are selected. You might like to use the predefined Multimedia Database Group that ships with BookWhere 6.
2. Use the Quick Search Toolbar on the top of BookWhere's Session Window.
3. Change the default first search attribute to Author instead of ISBN.
4. Select your first CD and enter the Music Artist's name (last name is usually enough) then enter the Title of the CD in the title field.
5. Press the Enter key or click the Search button to start the search.
6. As the results arrive you will see that the Media Type symbol for a music recording will appear in the analysis panel. Check the box next to the icon to tell BookWhere to only display results which are of this media type.
   
7. Export your selected record as usual.

Movies and DVDs

1. Again working from the Quick Search Toolbar, it is easiest to simply enter the title of the movie or DVD.
2. In this example we will search "Armageddon"
   
3. From our sample of selected databases, the search of this common title returned over 200 matching records, most of which are not the DVD format. This is a very common problem as movie titles tend to be short and commonly intersect with books and of course movie soundtrack names.
   
4. Notice that the analysis panel has grouped the results by rating (green representing good quality complete records - 94) and also the projected media icon shows 24 records in the format we are seeking. Check off the boxes next to these two icons in the Rating and Media Type category to immediate filter over 200 records down to the 15 records which we need to consider.
   

Don't forget to use the analysis panel's powerful filtering whenever you are trying to narrow the list of results to consider. Use it to filter out only books, audio recordings(talking books), musical recordings (CDs), printed music, maps etc. Use the Media Type filters in combination with Rating to quickly locate the very best records for your library catalog!

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead. May 2007. c. 384p. ISBN 9781594489501

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love. (Riverhead Books, Penguin Group)

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. Viking. Jan. 2007 c. 352p. ISBN 9780670034710

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott's hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans. (Penguin Group)

Speak Ill of the Dead: A Camilla MacPhee Mystery by Mary Jane Maffini. RendezVous Press. 1999
c. 304p. ISBN 0929141652

In the first book in the series, Camilla's best friend, Robin Findlay, is found in a hotel room with a murdered journalist during Ottawa's annual Tulip Festival. Many many people felt like killing Mitzi Brochu but for some reason the police decide Robin has something to do with the crime. Maybe it's the blood on her hands. Maybe it's because she won't say what she was doing there. It's up to Camilla to keep Robin out of the slammer even as the killer strikes again. And again. Each time the danger gets a bit closer to home. Meanwhile Camilla's family, her so-called office staff member Alvin Ferguson and chain-smoking, sherry-guzzling nosy neighbour, Mrs. Violet Parnell, run interference every step of the way. To make matters worse, her favourite sister is making eyes at her least-favourite police officer. And what the devil are all those damn cats up to? Speak Ill of the Dead was short listed for the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis award for Best First Mystery of 1999.

The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Grand Central Publishing c. 480p. ISBN 9780446580281

Pendergast has taken Constance on a whirlwind Grand Tour, hoping to give her closure and a sense of the world that she's missed. They head to Tibet, where Pendergast intensively trained in martial arts and spiritual studies. At a remote monastery, they learn that a rare and dangerous artifact the monks have been guarding for generations has been mysteriously stolen. Pendergast agrees to take up the search.

The trail leads him and Constance to the maiden voyage of the Queen Victoria, the world's largest and most luxurious passenger liner—and to an Atlantic crossing fraught with terror.