Reference and Outreach Forum 11-28-06


Charge Agendas and Minutes Members Reports Policies Resources	Reference and Outreach Open Forum November 28, 2006 9:00 AM Olin 106 Agenda: Voyager upgrade changes to the OPAC - David Banush Find It! : Web Feat implementation Phase II - Zsuzsa Koltay, Maureen Morris, Marty Kurth, Kaiser Walker, Nate Rupp, Melissa Kuo, Adam Chandler, Gail Steinhart, Randi Kepecs Minutes: Update on changes to the OPAC in next Voyager upgrade: David’s demonstration followed his earlier introduction with Jesse Koennecke at the Nov. 14 Reference & Outreach Forum. They are requesting comments by Dec. 8, and will leave the system as is unless they hear comments to the contrary. LTS has implemented a new keyword search feature into the Basic Search tab. Known affectionately as muff head, this choice in the pull-down list will allow keyword searching anywhere, including in the holdings data fields. David has since changed the display name of the MFHD Keyword Anywhere search to Holdings Keyword Anywhere in the dropdown list. This search should also allow users to search for provenance information in holdings records, as well as for call numbers, locations and other notes (while non-public notes are indexed in the search, they are not displayed in the OPAC). Although the demonstration trial failed, David wanted to stress that Annex materials are indeed searchable with the Holdings Keyword Anywhere search. Others who are interested in searches like this should refer to the list of Voyager location codes, which is on the LTS Web site at: http://lts.library.cornell.edu/lts/pp/vg/cv/happlocs.cfm The location codes should be entered as phrases using the Holdings Keyword Anywhere search. Thus, for items in Olin Reference (in response to a question from Nancy Skipper), the searcher should enter olin,ref as a phrase. Other keywords from the bibliographic record can be combined with the location code for more precise results. The same applies to the special locations like room 601Olin (olin,601). David adds that in response to the question raised by Marty Schlabach about entomology items in Geneva : using the Geneva location code (gnva) and searching "entomology" (both in the Holdings Keyword Anywhere search) should produce the desired results. Also under consideration (and open to comment) is Lynn Thitcheners suggestion that the default display view for OPAC records should be in the Long View, rather than in the Brief View. The test OPAC URL is http://catalog-unicode.library.cornell.edu. Once again, comments about the new OPAC features are needed no later than Friday, December 8. They can be sent to Jesse Koennecke or to David Banush (or, perhaps preferably, to both). Find it! Zsuzsa Koltay introduced Find it! (also known as Web Feat Phase II), to be released January 15, 2007. Currently, there are 100 databases searched in Find Articles, but the new release of Find it! will search 440 databases, with room to add 60 more. Find it! integrates Find Articles, Find Databases, Find Images. The implementation team is also looking into the feasibility of integrating Find E-Journals. The Web Feat team has been working extensively in sub-committees on usability, external search box, content and quality control. A public relations campaign is planned for January to assure that users are aware of the new searching features and capabilities when the release is public. Training sessions are also planned for early January to prepare library staff members for the change. Usability The interface has been designed based on usability testing. The Usability sub-committee has been active throughout the process of building the WebFeat interface, and has done extensive testing with undergraduate and graduate students, always asking users to discuss their strategies as they performed nine or ten key tasks. They used paper prototypes, as was clearly demonstrated in a videotaped testing session. Usability results are available on the project wiki (which is closed at this time, but well post the URL here when its made public). Content WebFeat Phase II will include all databases currently covered in Find databases [ http://erms.library.cornell.edu/search~S4/], Find images [ http://images.library.cornell.edu/], and in the CUL Digital Collections Registry [wiki: http://wiki.library.cornell.edu/wiki/display/CULIF/Registry]. A new quick search feature will allow users to quickly limit searches to a small sub-set of databases with broad subject coverage. Search Box Gail Steinhart has been working with code that can be plugged into Blackboard course pages and other web pages to search a custom set of databases. This feature will be offered on a trial basis in January. Quality Control Randi Kepecs has been monitoring response time in database queries and consistency of results, as well as problems encountered using the Open URL. She asks that problems be reported in detail either to her or to any members of the team (see list, above). Susette Newberry, recorder Print Version