Family Man Librarian

Below are some screen shots that illustrate some of what I discussed in my previous post about turning the library catalog inside out. I’ve purposely obscured or removed some identifying information. Also, I should mention that this whole new approach is still very much a work in progress, so what is shown in these pictures is likely to change over time. Click on the images to open a new window with a higher resolution view.

This is the new home page of the portal.

In the upper lefthand corner is a quick search box. Searches entered here actually search across several different content repositories including library catalog data.

When a search is input, results display a variety of content types. What is really interesting is the fact that these are integrated. I think this has enormous ramifications for how users find the information they are looking for. In addition, several helpful options are automatically presented in search results including a “did you mean…” type of functionality, and ways to readily expand or narrow search results as desired.

Below is a screen shot of the journals page showing options for an A to Z journal list that is browseable and keyword searchable, as well as a method for browsing journals by subject. On the righthand side of the screen, links to library catalogs are presented. The taxonomy used in the browse by subject list is automatically generated in the background by matching terms to subject headings and title keywords in the library catalog.

When a user selects a letter in the A to Z journal list, results show journal title and information that describes what volumes and/or issues of that journal to which we provide access. This data is derived directly from library catalog data (e.g. the holdings information comes from the 866 field of the MARC holdings record).

Users can also search the journals list by keyword.  In addition journals and other resources, including books, are included in a general browse by subject for the site as shown below.

Another nice feature is a way for users to see recently added journals. A method for allowing the user to select and retain a list of favorite journals is also being worked on.