[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] 2.5.2 Subject Browse Index

[Sarah Childs]

This is an interesting and useful idea (especially for catalogers!), 
but I'm not sure patrons would dig the intervening screen when 
performing the keyword subject search. It strikes that the function 
would be rather like a disambiguation page on Wikipedia. It might be 
nice might be nice if something like this displayed along with the 
search results, or if you got a link at the top of your search results 
directing you to it.

---
Sarah Childs
Technical Services Department Head
Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library
250 North Fifth Street
Zionsville, IN 46077
317-873-3149 x13330
sarahc at zionsville.lib.in.us

On 2014-06-20 10:08, Elizabeth B. Thomsen wrote:
> I think that Don is talking about something different -- a way to
> keyword search subject headings.
> 
> Right now we have two subject search options:
> 
> On the Basic and Advanced search screen, choosing subject and
> entering search terms gets you all the records that have that term in
> subject headings.  "Show me all the bib records that have the word
> Puffins somewhere in the subject headings."
> 
> On the Browse search, you choose subject and enter search terms, and
> you are shown the alphabetical section of the index that starts with
> whatever you entered. You get to a list of subject headings and their
> subdivisions (at least if you've done your indexes as described
> earlier in this thread, and they have the subdivisions like
> Bibliomations.
> 
> Keyword searching of subject headings would be saying "Show me all
> the subject headings that include these search terms."  If you entered
> "Washington," for example, you'd get something like this:
> 
> George Washington Bridge (New York, N.Y.)  (3)
> Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915 (30)
> Washington, George 1732-1783 (100)
> 
> That would be a great feature, something like "Find Headings," but I
> wouldn't want to see it replace either the way subject searching on
> basic advanced or subject browse works now.
> 
> 
> On 6/20/2014 9:45 AM, Kathy Lussier wrote:
>> On 6/20/2014 9:20 AM, Donald Butterworth wrote:
>>> I agree with Janet, that the whole subject phrase needs to be kept
>>> together so that only the limited set displays when clicking on the
>>> phrase. There are lots of DLC authority records that include a main
>>> subject and subdivisions.
>> 
>> I'm confused now. Are we still talking about the subject browse index 
>> or
>> are we talking about the bib record? If we're talking about the 
>> subject
>> browse index, I would agree, primarily because the user is presumably
>> seeing a hierarchy of subjects where the broader term may be directly
>> above the term they are looking at and the narrower term is directly
>> below. The current behavior is that the link keeps the subject phrase
>> together when you click on it, so no changes would be required here.
>> 
>> If we're talking about the bib record, I have to say I put a lot of
>> faith into what I'm sure is highly-funded usability testing done by
>> Amazon. As Dan mentioned, the current link behavior for subject 
>> headings
>> is similar to what Amazon is using. If the Evergreen community were 
>> to
>> do a coordinated batch of usability testing (probably not a bad idea)
>> and found that end users were indeed confused by the behavior, I 
>> might
>> think differently, but I personally like the ability to click higher 
>> in
>> the subject heading to broaden my search.
>> 
>> Kathy
> 
> 
> --
> Elizabeth Thomsen, Member Services Manager
> NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
> 26 Cherry Hill Drive
> Danvers MA 01923
> E-mail: et at noblenet.org