As a matter of fact, just as your email came in I was on the site learning some more about the search. Here is a suggestion. Sometimes a very large number of results can come in. For example, when I search for accessible books I get over six hundred thousand results. By the way, I am blind so I am especially interested in those. To narrow down those results I can either click something in the zoom in feature or add more key words. However, I might not know that precisely what I want, but may suspect that it is somewhere in the middle of the results, depending on how I sort them. There are a hundred results per page and at the end of the zoom in feature I can choose from the next ten pages. That allows me the ability to get to the first thousand results quite easily. But there are some six thousand pages in those more than six hundred thousand results. If I was trying to get to the middle of them I could click page ten and then click the next page and so forth. That would get me to the middle of the results eventually, but it would be a long and tedious process. What would be really handy would be to have an edit field in which I could type a page number and go directly to that page of results. The example I gave of not knowing exactly what I want, but thinking it might be in the middle of the results is really another way of saying that I would like to browse a subject area that has a lot of books in it. That edit field for typing in a page number would facilitate browsing considerably. As it is, one has to either refine one's subject or just browse through the first ten or so pages of results. I am suggesting a way to skim through thousands of pages of a subject. Could an edit field for the page number of results be added?
_ _ _ "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: http://www.pathfinderpress.com Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: "Open Library -- general discussion" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 9:16 PM Subject: Re: [ol-discuss] User interaction > Hi Roger, > > Just FYI - there's a little search cheat sheet hidden under the "Zoom In" > heading on the right-hand side of search results pages: > > http://openlibrary.org/search?q=roger > > As well as being able to use the facets listed on the right hand side, you > can write search queries as you search: > > http://openlibrary.org/search/howto > > I agree that it's a bit tricky to find out how to join the lists - we'll > try to improve that. > > Cheers, > george > > >> I am a Wikipedia user who has made an occasional edit, but I don't spend >> a >> lot of time on it and I have never visited the Village Pump. I get the >> impression that it is a message board. If that is correct I think this >> mailing list is better. It is more convenient to read posts when I am >> checking my email on a daily basis anyway as opposed to remembering to go >> to >> a certain site and perhaps logging in and then sorting through the posts. >> I >> will add that it was not hard at all to sign up for this mailing list. >> The >> only problem was finding it. After scouring the FAQ I was trying to find >> some place on the Open Library site that could give me tips to help me >> make >> better use of the search feature. In that process I came across the >> information about subscribing to this list. I never did find the >> information >> I was looking for on searching for books. I now think that is because the >> search engine is not sophisticated enough to do much fancy with it >> anyway, >> but it still might be a good idea to make the information on the two >> email >> lists easier to find. >> >> >> _ _ _ >> >> "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg >> >> >> The Militant: >> http://www.themilitant.com >> Pathfinder Press: >> http://www.pathfinderpress.com >> Granma International: >> http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Karen Coyle" <[email protected]> >> To: <[email protected]> >> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 5:00 PM >> Subject: Re: [ol-discuss] User interaction >> >> >>> Quoting Alex Stinson <[email protected]>: >>> >>>> In regards to the comments on user interaction, something in the way of >>>> the >>>> Wikipedia Village pump >>>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump) >>>> or the Wikipedia Help Desk >>>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk) would >>>> be useful >>> >>> There's also the way that LibraryThing does it: it lets people set up >>> "discussion groups" based on any topic that people want. So that way >>> the Romance novel people and the Urdu poetry people can have their own >>> places. If there are general cataloging issues, there could be a >>> general cataloging discussion group where people talk about "best >>> practices" or discuss a non-obvious fix for a problem. >>> >>> kc >>> >>> instead of several layers of form's you have to fill out before >>>> getting on this discussion mailing list. It makes the whole discussion >>>> process more transparent and will likely get more thoughts from more >>>> casual >>>> observers who don't want to comit those extra steps to get here. I >>>> almost >>>> walked away from this mailing list because it was taking a little while >>>> and >>>> I couldn't access the Archive of the discussion at >>>> http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/ol-discuss/ . I stuck >>>> around >>>> because I realized that this could be a serious problem for you all in >>>> engaging your contribution community and really support what you are >>>> doing >>>> with this project. >>>> >>>> Alex >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Karen Coyle >>> [email protected] http://kcoyle.net >>> ph: 1-510-540-7596 >>> m: 1-510-435-8234 >>> skype: kcoylenet >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Ol-discuss mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss >>> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to >>> [email protected] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Ol-discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss >> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to >> [email protected] >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Ol-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to > [email protected] _______________________________________________ Ol-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to [email protected]
