Minutes for 11/29/2016

MAC Meeting, Nov 29th at 1:00

Full meeting recording is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehUQvOP90rQ

Please see this meeting recording for Mark’s demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehUQvOP90rQ

• Proposal for a "book cart lite" kind of functionality (much like what we used to have in Classic) (see: PK 240 in YouTrack)

Martha mentioned that the Strategic Directions are set by the Marmot Directors at their annual meeting.  

Mark again reminds us that this functionality was available in VuFind+ and that they spent a huge amount of time on and that no one wanted it (somehow I was left out of that discussion) and that it was a “huge maintenance suck”. There is a lot of complexity that goes into this from a programming point of view. He is reluctant to revisit it, for this reason. Though, at the MAC meeting in August (Durango) he and Jimmy did invite Jamie and myself to submit an enhancement. We did.

Please go in and vote on this!

Further discussion led to Karen offering suggestions on how some of this could be accomplished sooner by changing some of the display features to provide a more “trimmed down” listing when searching by “title begins with…” We will look into that, but it doesn’t fix the need to for a more concise listing such as is found in Classic. As Jamie says “a concise, somewhat predictable order would be helpful”. Jamie and Mary will look at this idea at the beginning of 2017. Not to replace the Browse function, but it’s a step in the right direction.

We will be soliciting “User stories” as we move forward.

Next Meeting: January?? TBD (We will not be meeting in December)

Desirable Features for A-Z Browse in an Academic Catalog

Alpha browse should be a short and concise list (see examples below). Examples below are taken from Browse searches at Villanova University VuFind and University of Tennessee at Knoxville Alma/Primo.

Regardless of the type of browse, each search type should display ordered and concise results list which is critical for student and faculty researchers.

1. Author browse (A to Z browse)

   1. Mostly single line A-Z sort

   2. Lines contain author and # results

   3. See references present

   4. Helpful if the target result shows some items that would occur before it as at Villanova.

http://tinyurl.com/zvr88mp  (Univ. Tenn – Knoxville)

http://tinyurl.com/gnn4rwe (Villanova)

2. Call number browse

   1. Call # sort (A to Z)

   2. One line entries (mostly)

   3. Ideal would be a minimum of Call Number and title

      1. Author, date, # of items – are other possible fields to list (let’s talk)

      2. Needs to be concise and clean

   4. Helpful if the target result shows some items that would occur before it as at Villanova.

http://tinyurl.com/zaj6kek (Univ Tenn - Knoxville)

http://tinyurl.com/jywmus7 (Villanova)

3. Subject Browse (A to Z)

   1. Subjects listed alphabetically with # of results

      1. Includes See Refs

   2. One-line display of results

   3. Helpful if the target result shows some items that would occur before it as at Villanova.

http://tinyurl.com/j2rzyzm (Univ Tenn - Knoxville)

http://tinyurl.com/zawtt2j (Villanova)

4. Title browse (A to Z)

   1. Minimum would include Title and number of records

   2. Primo is concise and brief – Number of records and Title

      1. Primo groups records

   3. Our own "classic" catalog also displays titles very concisely.

   4. Vufind has Title, author, format, year, and number of results

      1. Not concise/clean display (looks junky)

      2. Too many columns of information to be concise, especially awkward in the second sample from Villanova

   5. Helpful if the target result shows some items that would occur before it as at Villanova.

http://tinyurl.com/gwbuppx (Univ Tenn - Knoxville)

http://tinyurl.com/jflnhpj (Villanova)

http://tinyurl.com/jd456l7 (Villanova)