Link to Mockup
The "articles" tab of the search widget uses MultiSearch, still under development by Serials. This is early in the process of working with this new MultiSearch tool from Serials Solutions.
What do you think? Click on "Comments" below to read other comments and leave your own.
The "articles" tab of the search widget uses MultiSearch, still under development by Serials. This is early in the process of working with this new MultiSearch tool from Serials Solutions.
What do you think? Click on "Comments" below to read other comments and leave your own.
10 comments:
I am off campus and so I got the Serials Solutions error page -- do you think we can customize this page? Right now it says to contact Serials Solutions ... I will look more later next time I am on VPN.
Could the "Databases included in General Multisearch" be moved to the right since the link doesn't actually open, but just displays in a pop down box? It was unclear whether it should open elsewhere or just show which databases are searched.
When conducting a search, it gave no indication which databases were being searched after the search finished (my search was: cheese) I was unable to determine where it was pulling the data since I toggled between screens while the search was running.
Additionally, has there been any discussion of changing the color scheme when the New LEO goes live so that the search box will mimic the new colors seen in New LEO?
I don't know if these comments are beyond the scope of what we're looking to discuss here, but...
I think it would be a mistake to launch this tool without relevancy ranking.
Also, the layout of the results page could stand some revision to make better use of on-screen real estate and generally be more intuitive to non-librarian users.
To consider another model, I like the way NC State Univ. has designed their federated search results page.
Lastly, expanding the multi-search to include a search of all library Web pages would make the tool more robust and relevant to users. This sort of functionality could eliminate the need for more than one search widget and the need to distinguish among them.
Re Meris's comment about the color...
What? You don't like flesh-toned/salmon/peach/pink? It's infamous now just for the color!
(cracking myself up)
I agree with Jason that until Multisearch is further along in development and testing and until more functionality like relevancy ranking is available, we should hold off on implementation. As I understand it, this academic year was to be an evaluation and testing period. It would seem apropriate particularyly after the faculty discussion on 7/24 to stay with the original time table. I don't think either the liaisons or reference staff expected this to be implemented so soon and before a more thorough review.
I think I tend to agree with Jerry and Jason that it would be premature to roll out the multisearch now (at least in such a prominent place). Perhaps it could be linked to somewhere, with a teaser (e.g., "try our beta version of Multisearch"). We could ask for feedback to get an idea of how people are using/liking it. I'd like to better understand the results that we retrieve here, but haven't had a chance to figure that out.
I searched for some big topics (the kind of thing that undergrads do), and the results were not very helpful. One problem is that many of the results I got were book reviews. I tried "Dreyfus affair" and NOT "review," but this didn't succeed in filtering out the reviews, even when the word, "review" appeared right at the top of the record. I also got duplicate records, which was frustrating.
The clusters were also odd. One cluster was "Spirituality, Friendship, and Politics during the Dreyfus Affair." This is actually the sub-title of a book, and these were all book reviews.
I found that, whether you click "Refine Search" or "New Search," you get the complete list of subjects (General among them), but General doesn't stay checked off. I'm not sure if that can be changed, but most students will probably tend to just change some keywords and click on "Search," and then will be prompted to "select at least one resource."
I'll echo Jason, Jerry, and Patricia in that I really don't think that the Multisearch is ready to go live yet. In my sample searches, the results were questionable at best.
My first search was for "gender" and "Middlemarch" as keywords, which would be a pretty basic literature search. The results were as follows:
Academic Search: 1
Scopus: 0
Wilson OmniFile: 4
JSTOR: 0
LexisNexis: 231
InfoTrac OneFile: 1
I'm not terribly concerned with the numbers for ASP, Scopus, Wilson, or InfoTrac, but the numbers for JSTOR and LexisNexis seemed screwy. I redid the search in JSTOR and found that JSTOR actually has 439 hits for the same search. The problem with the LN results is that it was citing journals that aren't even in LN and the links were bad.
With another search I did for the term "hybridity," I found that it was very difficult to refine the search even using the subject limiters. When I select only the literature databases, I get really odd results (from the Alexander Street Press databases and biography sources as well as journal article databases - ABC-CLIO, MLA, etc.) I know which ones would be worth looking at, but a student wouldn't necessarily know what types of results he or she would get from each database.
I really want to be able to specify which databases I search from the very beginning. As is, the multisearch article search in the widget doesn't allow for that. Of an example of how this could look, here's a link to IU's federated search: http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=3435
I like that from the start, the user can not only select which databases to search but is given an explanation of what is in each database. Also, I like that users have the option to select databases from the subject pages.
It's early in the game for getting MultiSearch implemented and it sounds like a few of you have done some valuable testing for Serials to followup on.
In a meeting a few weeks ago, I remember some eagerness to see this up and running. I agree with your comments here that we'd be jumping the gun to get this part of the widget out there in time for school to start.
This is a great early test, though. As you see more things to comment on, please offer them here or directly to Cheri, Deb and Titus! I know that Cheri was eager for your input!
Just rereading my last comment and realizing I could be more explicit.
I agree that we should continue to work out the kinks before we put MultiSearch on the search widget.
Thank you for your fantastic comments so far!
RE: Meris' comments about color
Well, maybe it's time to reconsider the peach. We'll try the new LEO colors on version 2 of the alpha widget.
Post a Comment