[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Reintroducing search range-like features in TPAC

[Kathy Lussier]

Thanks for taking a look at this Dan!

>>As for one of the elements of MassLNC's document, requesting that
>>copies
>>be sorted first by library name and then by call number, I've taken a
>>stab in that direction by making a branch such that volumes within the
>>unapi.holdings_xml database function sort by library name and then call
>>number label. There is still a loophole: copies that are circulating at
>>a library that is not the volume owner will still appear out of order,
>>but at least this moves us closer to the goal.

I just need a bit of clarification here. When you say "copies that are
circulating at a library that is not the volume owner" are your referring to
the circulation library (as entered in the copy editor) or are you referring
to copies that just happen to be circulating at another library after
filling a hold? I suspect the former, but, since I initially read it as the
latter, I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly.

>>As for implementing the "show copies that are held by the preferred
>>location first" logic, a simplistic approach would be to have the
>>Template Toolkit layer check for available copies in the holdings_xml
>>via a specific XPath request and then bubble those to the top - but
>>that
>>won't work for sites with lots of copies and a wide search range,
>>because we'll hit problems with paging. So a better route might me to
>>use a windowing function in unapi.holdings_xml to rank the results
>>based
>>on whether the owning library matches the preferred location, and then
>>order by rank, library name, and call number label.

If I'm understanding this correctly, then, if my preferred location owns 15
copies of a title, the latter method will allow paging after the first 10
copies while the more simplistic approach may not be able to handle that as
well? Is that correct?

Thank you!
Kathy
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 756-0172
(508) 755-3721 (fax)
klussier at masslnc.org
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>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-
>>ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Dan Scott
>>Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 10:02 PM
>>To: Evergreen Discussion Group
>>Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Reintroducing search range-like
>>features in TPAC
>>
>>On Tue, Dec 06, 2011 at 03:18:48PM -0500, Kathy Lussier wrote:
>>
>><snip>
>>
>>> MassLNC would like to suggest that we add an element that also
>>identifies
>>> the user's preferred local library. This library would default to the
>>user's
>>> home library, but could be changed via the user's preferences. A
>>library
>>> should also be able to provide a link to the catalog that identifies
>>this
>>> preferred local library so that, for example, if a user is searching
>>the
>>> catalog from inside the library without logging in, that library's
>>holdings
>>> information will be highlighted, even if the user is searching the
>>entire
>>> consortium.
>>>
>>> If the user were to change their scope to a different library, then
>>the
>>> catalog should highlight the holdings of that scoped library.
>>However, if
>>> the user were searching the entire consortium, the catalog should
>>highlight
>>> the holdings of their preferred local library.
>>>
>>> We have pulled together some requirements and mock-ups for the
>>information
>>> we would like to display on the search results and record detail
>>pages
>>> depending on what is being scoped and whether there is a preferred
>>local
>>> library. You can view them at http://masslnc.cwmars.org/node/2454.
>>>
>>> We welcome any thoughts or suggestions on the best way to get this
>>rolled
>>> into the TPAC.
>>
>>Great, thanks Kathy (and MassLNC) for the thoughts on search range in
>>TPAC. I like the move away from a separate "search scope" widget, as in
>>our experience people seemed to get very confused by the separation of
>>search depth from what they had chosen in the library selector widget.
>>Simplifying things such that there's just one hierarchical library
>>selector that determines scope, plus a possible "preferred location"
>>that drives some additional behaviour in terms of which results are
>>displayed first, sounds like a more intuitive experience.
>>
>>As for one of the elements of MassLNC's document, requesting that
>>copies
>>be sorted first by library name and then by call number, I've taken a
>>stab in that direction by making a branch such that volumes within the
>>unapi.holdings_xml database function sort by library name and then call
>>number label. There is still a loophole: copies that are circulating at
>>a library that is not the volume owner will still appear out of order,
>>but at least this moves us closer to the goal.
>>
>>Said bug is at https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/903015
>>
>>As for implementing the "show copies that are held by the preferred
>>location first" logic, a simplistic approach would be to have the
>>Template Toolkit layer check for available copies in the holdings_xml
>>via a specific XPath request and then bubble those to the top - but
>>that
>>won't work for sites with lots of copies and a wide search range,
>>because we'll hit problems with paging. So a better route might me to
>>use a windowing function in unapi.holdings_xml to rank the results
>>based
>>on whether the owning library matches the preferred location, and then
>>order by rank, library name, and call number label.
>>
>>Also, for identifying the preferred location, I propose "ploc" to
>>complement the "loc" CGI param. Then, with the work that Rick Scott is
>>currently doing towards adopting mkurl() consistently, we'll get the
>>persistence of that setting for free.