Ah, yet another thing we could call "browse" ;-).
This isn't the kind of browse where you get placed in a subject heading
list and can go backward and forward alphabetically. This is actually a
keyword search in a set of headings -- so basically this search
retrieves headings, not bibliographic records. We had this in the
original home-grown MELVYL and I liked it a lot. I would characterize it
as: show me all of the subject headings with the word "x" in them. We
also had it for names and for titles -- actually, I guess we had it for
all heading indexes, just because we could.
I think this is very useful for subject searching compared to the
left-anchored browse because it allows you to search on terms that
aren't at the beginning of the string. In fact, I could call this a
"facet terms in context" search. It's especially good for geographical
term searching since those are often buried in the LCSH string. It has
the disadvantage that you can't actually "browse" - that is, you can't
see a similar heading that wasn't retrieved with your keyword search.
The problem I see with all of these various ways of browsing is: how do
we present them to the users in a way that they understand what
functionality they will be getting?
kc
Ted P Gemberling wrote:
> Martha Yee reported this week about a great development in subject
> searching, spearheaded particularly by Sara Shatford Layne. See this
> page from UCLA's Film & Television Archive:
>
> http://cinema.library.ucla.edu <http://cinema.library.ucla.edu/>
>
>
>
> If you select topic or genre/form search, you can enter any combination
> of words in the search box, in any order. The great thing is that the
> result is a subject browse screen rather than a list of "hits," as usual
> for subject keyword searches. It draws from the authorities, not just
> the forms of headings on bib records, so xrefs are searched, too.
>
>
>
> This is a development by Endeavor (Voyager), so it is, I suppose,
> proprietary. But I think it's a very good development.
>
>
>
> Ted Gemberling
>
> UAB Lister Hill Library
>
> (205)934-2461
>
>
--
-----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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Received on Wed Jul 25 2007 - 13:00:55 EDT