> The great thing is that the result is a subject browse screen
> rather than a list of "hits," as usual for subject keyword
> searches.
I'm not sure that I would agree that it is great thing that the result is a subject browse screen. A fairly basic principle of web usability design is to design the user interface so that it behaves per the user's expectations. Those expectations are set by the dozens, hundreds, or thousands of web search interfaces that the user used before they stumbled upon your (or my) library system. The convention for a search results screen is that the user will see a list of "hits" that match the search. I'm not making a value judgment that that is inherently *better* (although I happen to think it is) -- I'm making the point that from a usability perspective, having a search interface behave intuitively (i.e. like most all of the other search interfaces used by the user) is pretty paramount.
As Library folk, we may think that the library system is "special" [1] and therefore users should conform to our ideas of how best to conduct a search, but I would argue that that is, and has been for years, a losing strategy. I think it behooves us to make the *default* search interfaces of our library systems conform as much as possible to the conventions that have shaped our users' expectations. There *is* a place for the specialized library system searches, but I think that needs to be in an Advanced Search page (which is also a well-understood convention of web search interfaces).
-- Michael
[1] Maybe the library system *is* special, but either way, I would argue that that is beside the point. Special or not, libraries no longer have a monopoly on information resources; we're now competing in a much larger sphere of available resources.
# Michael Doran, Systems Librarian
# University of Texas at Arlington
# 817-272-5326 office
# 817-688-1926 mobile
# doran_at_uta.edu
# http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Ted P Gemberling
> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 10:49 PM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] New subject keyword search
>
> 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
>
Received on Wed Jul 25 2007 - 13:37:11 EDT