jvine@stanford.edu's blog

A release this morning added some requested new features:

1. Alphabetical (0-Z) "jump-to" links at the top of the databases list.
2. Select (or unselect) all items on the current page of a results set. Change the "per page" setting to display and select more records at a time.
3. The ability to select full or brief record formats when you email one or more records.

By now, you've seen the site map and the emerging visual design for the new site; these are like the foundation and the décor of a new house. Between these two layers, there's a lot of design work around creating the rooms, placing the windows, planning the traffic flow, etc. In a website project, that design work is represented in mockups or wireframes that define how the pages will be laid out, what content will be presented, and how the navigation will work.

Databases have always been listed in SearchWorks; now they're easier to find and browse.

There's a new Format called "Database A-Z". When you select this format, you get a list of databases sorted by title, and the specially-assigned database subjects are highlighted at the top of the left column. (You can also click the "find the best database(s)" link below the search box on the home page.)

This release includes two significant enhancements that have been championed and driven by the MetaData Unit members of the SearchWorks team, to address two longstanding and highly-sought improvements in search quality and behavior.

Uniform title links

SearchWorks has supported searching for some call numbers for a while now; we've now enhanced this feature to give more accurate searching for LC, Dewey, and Media/Microtext call numbers. To do this, we've had to remove call numbers from the "everything" search, and have added a specific "Call number" search option to the Search pull-down.

To specify when you're searching by call number:

1. Enter the call number in the search box (no quotes required)
2. Click the arrow next to Search, and select "Call Number"

There are some substantial enhancements in SearchWorks 1.4:

Browse by Call Number
The small "browse by call number" list on the item detail page has been augmented with a full-page view. Click the "Show full page" link, and you'll be able to browse the virtual shelves across all libraries, in gallery or list view.

New request forms

Several SearchWorks improvements were released today.

Better popups: Now you can move the Feedback form around by dragging its header, and copy/paste text from your search page into the form. The new popups are also used for Cite This, SMS/Text, and Librarian View.

Ctrl-click/Cmd-click: In some browser/OS combinations, the Ctrl-click or Cmd-click shortcut for opening links in a new tab was not working for titles in the search results list. This has been fixed.

SearchWorks is now updated on a nightly basis with records from Symphony. This is an improvement over the previous, manual process for updating SearchWorks on a weekly to biweekly basis, and gives patrons reliable access to the most recent additions to the the Libraries' collections. (Note that item availability information in both SearchWorks and Socrates shows an item's real time status information, not the item's availability from the previous night.)

A new panel on the resource detail displays items immediately adjacent to the current resource based on call number ordering, regardless of library, location or collection. Users can also browse the virtual shelf to "left" or "right" to see the next set of sequential records in either direction.

We have improved the display of item availability information. On the resource detail page, items are grouped by library and home location. Within each group, call numbers are sorted according to their type - serials in reverse chronological order; mutli-volume sets in ascending volume order; boxes/folders in ascending numerical order, and so on. Multiple copies of the same item are now shown individually.