Monday, July 26, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
HELP & Search Tips
The search tips in WebVoyage are for currently for relevency searches (which is not what we are using in OPAC).
FYI: supplied by Kate M. The HELPS below are from the OPAC version before Tomcat.
Search Tips
Capitalization has no effect on search results.
Keyword(s)
Use quotes for phrases: "united states"
Use ? for truncation: child? (child, children, childhood)
Title
Omit beginning articles such as the and a
Omit beginning articles from foreign languages: le, la, les, los
Journal Title
Use full titles rather than abbreviations
Omit beginning articles such as the and a
Omit beginning articles from foreign languages: le, la, les, los
Author
Type last name first, a space, then the first name (or as much of the first name as you know)
For example: chopin kate or angelou m or dostoyevsky
Omit punctuation
Subject Heading
Use LC (Library of Congress) or Medical Subject headings
For Library of Congress Subject Headings, consult the books available at a library reference desk
Call Number
Enter a call number to browse the shelves
Include a space between the call number and year
Include a space in front of the third set of letters (if present)
To search for call number GV957.S8 A1 1973, include spaces before
the A and before 1973.
Command Search
Use AND, OR, or NOT to link terms
Use quotes for phrases: "united states"
Use ? for truncation: child? (child, children, childhood)
Use parenthesis for nested searching:
(criticism or commentary) and plath
Author Sorted By Title
Use to search for works by composers or prolific authors
To search for musical works by composer, enter last name first: beethoven l
To search for works by prolific authors, enter last name first: hemingway e
Omit punctuation
- Search Tips: enter words relating to your topic, use quotes to search phrases: "united states", use + to mark essential terms: +explorer, use * to mark important terms: *internet, use ? to truncate: comput?
FYI: supplied by Kate M. The HELPS below are from the OPAC version before Tomcat.
Search Tips
Capitalization has no effect on search results.
Keyword(s)
Use quotes for phrases: "united states"
Use ? for truncation: child? (child, children, childhood)
Title
Omit beginning articles such as the and a
Omit beginning articles from foreign languages: le, la, les, los
Journal Title
Use full titles rather than abbreviations
Omit beginning articles such as the and a
Omit beginning articles from foreign languages: le, la, les, los
Author
Type last name first, a space, then the first name (or as much of the first name as you know)
For example: chopin kate or angelou m or dostoyevsky
Omit punctuation
Subject Heading
Use LC (Library of Congress) or Medical Subject headings
For Library of Congress Subject Headings, consult the books available at a library reference desk
Call Number
Enter a call number to browse the shelves
Include a space between the call number and year
Include a space in front of the third set of letters (if present)
To search for call number GV957.S8 A1 1973, include spaces before
the A and before 1973.
Command Search
Use AND, OR, or NOT to link terms
Use quotes for phrases: "united states"
Use ? for truncation: child? (child, children, childhood)
Use parenthesis for nested searching:
(criticism or commentary) and plath
Author Sorted By Title
Use to search for works by composers or prolific authors
To search for musical works by composer, enter last name first: beethoven l
To search for works by prolific authors, enter last name first: hemingway e
Omit punctuation
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Alphabetize Type, Format, search fields?
To go along with our recent re-ordering of limits and such, I'd like to propose that we alphabetize and/or reorganize some of our other pull-down options in OPAC. For example in advanced search, we could alphabetize the Type and Format lists.
In advanced search, we have a list of fields to search within. Could we group similar items together, such as, put ISBN and ISSN near each other in the list? Put Title Keyword above Title Proper? Place Publisher Date and Publisher Name together in the list? I think we need to leave Keyword Anywhere, Title Keyword, Author Keyword, and Subject Keyword as the first four options. Is there a reason to keep the order we have now?
In advanced search, we have a list of fields to search within. Could we group similar items together, such as, put ISBN and ISSN near each other in the list? Put Title Keyword above Title Proper? Place Publisher Date and Publisher Name together in the list? I think we need to leave Keyword Anywhere, Title Keyword, Author Keyword, and Subject Keyword as the first four options. Is there a reason to keep the order we have now?
Consistency between Limit To and Filter Your Search
It was brought to my attention today that the organization of our Limit To list in the basic search and the Filter Your Search options on the search results page are not consistent. Should the limits and the filter options be the same? Should we organize the Filter Your Search options by type, date limit, and location - like we've done to the Limit To list?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Promoting Electronic Resources
Some libraries are using graphic labels to focus attention on their electronic resources. The above example is from Tulane's Sandbox development OPAC. At its June 18 meeting the group approved the concept but were not enamoured with this graphic. Dave and Neil will work on new image options for our production website. Please send Dave any ideas you have.
Mobile Catalog
A mobile Voyager catalog is available at http://voyager.tcs.tulane.edu/vwebv/searchBasic?sk=mobile. The website is based upon usability testing and mobile design work done by the University of Rochester libraries. The colors and fonts will be tweaked to conform to the standards of the new library website but this is otherwise ready to roll out for Fall 2010.
Basic Search -- Reordering the Limits
The OPAC Ggroup on June 18, 2010 agreed to a new ordering of the pull-down limits for Basic Search: Recent and Archives at the top, followed by alpha listings by type and by location. The changes look like this in Sandbox.
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