[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Inconsistent search results

[Kathy Lussier]

 Hi all,
 
We have noticed some interesting behavior with search results. This may be a
little difficult to explain, but I'm wondering if any of these issues are
bugs that can be fixed or if the behavior is there by design. If it's by
design, I would be interested in getting further explanation on what is
happening behind the scenes.
 
I'm looking at a 2.1 system, but I've noticed this behavior in other 2.0
catalogs as well.
 
1. If I conduct a search for solar system from the advanced search screen,
limit the search to my branch, and then apply a search filter for books and
non-fiction, I get 53 search results. In the search bar along the top of the
screen, the branch limiter has been carried over, but the format is set to
all formats. If the patron then clicks to limit the search to available
items or chooses to sort the results by publication date, it looks like the
system is executing the search using the parameters contained in that search
bar. Since the non-fiction and book limiters were not carried over to the
search bar, these limiters are no longer part of the search. Therefore, if a
user chooses to simply change the sort on those results, they are suddenly
dealing with 73 results that include non-print and fiction material.
 
2. Doing the same search that I conducted in the above example, I see from
my facet list that there are 14 titles with the geographic subject of "solar
system." If I click on that facet, once again, the system appears to be
executing the search using parameters contained in the search bar. The
resulting list has 18 titles instead of the 14 titles that I was expecting.
These new results contain non-print and fiction material.
 
3. After limiting my search with a facet, I then click on the advanced
search button to conduct a new search. I notice that ft=
subject|geographic[Solar system] has carried over to the URL for this page.
I click the Reset Form button and then do a search for dogs. In this case, I
get no search results because the solar system geographic subject facet has
carried over to this search. (This library must not have any books on dogs
living in outer space.) There is no indication letting the user know the
solar system facet has been applied to this search. So, in the first two
examples, I'm in a situation where I want search limiters to stick, but they
are not sticking. In this case, I have a limiter that just won't go away.
There are only two ways I've found to get the facet to unstick: either by
conducting a new search from the basic search page or by removing the
parameters from the URL.
 
4. Even when I'm not applying a limiter to my search, I sometimes get an
inconsistent number of search results depending on the way the list is
sorted. This inconsistency is most likely to happen with a larger result
set. If I do a search for solar system from the basic search of our demo
system, I get 69  results -
http://egdemo.mvlcstaff.org/opac/en-US/skin/klussier/xml/rresult.xml?rt=keyw
ord
<http://egdemo.mvlcstaff.org/opac/en-US/skin/klussier/xml/rresult.xml?rt=key
word&tp=keyword&t=solar%20system&ft=&l=4&d=2&f>
&tp=keyword&t=solar%20system&ft=&l=4&d=2&f=. The result set then ranges
anywhere from 67 to 72 depending on which sort option I select. Sorting by
title A to Z gives me 70 results and sorting by title Z to A gives me 67
results.
 
Any thoughts on on this?
 
Thanks!
Kathy Lussier
 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 756-0172
(508) 755-3721 (fax)
klussier at masslnc.org
IM: kmlussier (AOL & Yahoo)
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
 
 
 
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