Progress report – search interface

August 27, 2010 at 10:15 am | Posted in process analysis, usability, yocalcat | 1 Comment
Tags: JISC, jiscLMS, progressReport, update, usability, yocalcat

A quick catch-up before going on holiday for a week, and in advance of the JISC programme meeting and ECDL in Glasgow. 

Our search interface is live at http://yorksj.worldcat.org/ .  We’re still working on a search box to integrate into our web pages that will allow for more basic searching of our catalogue for local users, as well as in-depth searching for more confident and advanced users.  This will form the primary means of access for our users.  Academic Onefile has been loaded by OCLC as a centrally-indexed database and we have linked to it in the service configuration, so this is now searchable along with WorldCat and WorldCat.org.  We have also linked to some remotely accessible databases (EBSCO) so these are now searchable too.  We had some problems with recent editions not being listed at the top of the results list, and this is the subject of an enhancement request.  The View all editions and formats option was producing inconsistent results, largely due to how the OCLC FRBR algorithm works, and the problem is being pursued further by OCLC.   We also have issues with de-duplication not working that are still being investigated.  The OCLC Development team is looking into it, and may tweak the script that the Z39.50 search accesses to improve the rankings, if they cannot come up with another solution.

A Deletes batchload has been sent off finally, and is being processed.  No major removal of items from the database had been done for some time, largely due to how batchload removals works in Symphony, so there was quite a lot of sifting of data to ensure that only those records with OCLC numbers that had no copies left were removed.  A second batchload was sent off containing deletes since we started cataloguing via WorldCat.  This is an ongoing process and will form part of the process analysis that is being undertaken in Acquisitions and Cataloguing to ensure streamlined workflows.  As mentioned in the previous blog a flowchart will be produced detailing the process.  We have not yet decided whether we shall continue to send batchloads of deletes or the process will be managed through the Connexions cataloguing interface.  We have yet to investigate the batchload processes in Connexions.

Our link resolver was migrated to the WorldCat Link Manager during July.  The process went very smoothly, and we were able to global edit the link urls in our existing catalogue as well as reconfigure part of the existing OPAC to take account of the changes.

Usability testing is continuing with library staff to get their views on the user interface and will form an ongoing analysis of the usability of the interface.  Analysis of the testing carried out with other users is ongoing, and we should manage to adhere to project schedules; hold-ups have been largely down to holidays and pressure of other work, another problem of being a small academic library.

We’re looking forward to meeting up with the other JISC LMS projects in Glasgow next month for the programme meeting, for which a slide and short presentation is being prepared.  It will be good to swap experiences and find out what others have been doing.