I would say that a browse interface is absolutely essential as part of a catalog, with LC Authorities/LC Online Catalog being examples. Improvements could be made, like Jim Weinheimer's suggestion about expandable lists for subdivided headings, as long as the base alphabetical browse list is available to show the items (counts, links to actual records) the catalog contains. It shouldn't be the only way of searching, but it should be available as an option at least. I do like Dan Matei's suggestion of searches morphing into browses. Facet listings should also be expandable into browses, and should be sortable by count of hits or by alphabet. As a result, it would be possible to search for a popular name (William Shakespeare), and then select from the author facet listing to expand the facets returned from just a few of those who are associated with the famous Shakespeare to all surrounding names starting at Shakespeare, William (Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616; Shakespeare, W!
illiam, 1843-1930; etc.), to see if another author with that name has anything in the database. For subjects, each could have a + next to it to expand into all of the subdivisions of that specific name, for example, expanding Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616+ into:
461 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. LC subject headings
37 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. LC subject headings for children
1 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Medical subject headings
1 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 not applicable
1 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Sears list of subject headings
0 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. 1 Henry IV LC subject headings
0 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. 12th nite LC subject headings
0 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. 3 by Shakespeare LC subject headings
0 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. 40 sonetti LC subject headings
0 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. 5 plays of Shakespeare LC subject headings
0 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. 85 sonetos LC subject headings
0 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Acting LC subject headings
0 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Acting career LC subject headings
233 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Adaptations.
etc.
(Formatting/arrangement of the elements in the listing could be revised, but it would show at least the count of records in the catalog with that heading and the heading).
On Jim's mention of going outside the library for resources, there could be something in the interface that offers external resources, but it seems to me that that should be separate from the results from the library's internal resources--perhaps in a split-screen type of display or directions for clicking for more resources. The library catalog itself, though, should be limited to items held by or selected by the institution that owns the catalog.
Bryan Baldus
Cataloger
Quality Books Inc.
The Best of America's Independent Presses
1-800-323-4241x402
bryan.baldus_at_quality-books.com
Received on Thu Mar 12 2009 - 10:54:41 EDT