* Never make a user click twice if there is a way to click once
* Must be compatible with all manner of handheld devices
* Must comply with current accessibility standards for the sight
impaired
I would argue these are principles that should be kept in mind for a
catalog for all audiences. Looking at the last two: the responsive
design catalog is fairly new and probably has areas where it could be
improved for handheld devices. If there is a specific area of the
catalog that needs improvement for mobile devices, I encourage you to
file a LP report on it. There were several people involved in that
project, and I'm sure many of us would be happy to continue work to make
it better.
My understanding is also that the catalog is WCAG compliant as of 2.6,
so this is another area where a bug report should be filed if it's not
meeting standards.
Must comply with current library standards (no matter how ridiculous)
I would need more information on this one.
In my opinion there should be: less art, more text, less white space,
fewer headings
So *this* is the area where I would say we're talking about an academic
flavor. A lot of this is customizable, of course, but, if there was
consensus among a several academics on this idea of less art, more text,
etc., then I do think it would be fairly easy to incorporate these
things into another template directory that is available in the core code.
Note that the author and subject entries are hot links. Clicked
authors would result in an Author Browse Results Screen. Clicked
Subjects would result in a Subject Browse Results Screen.
I believe it is critical to treat the whole subject phrase as a single
entity. Treating each individual subdivision as its own searchable
entity is not helpful. Probably 10% of the records in our collection
have the subject subdivisions "Religious aspects -- Christianity." You
can imagine that the results from a keyword search for either of these
terms would be unhelpful. On the other hand clicking on the entire
phrase, such as Psychotherapy -- Religious aspects -- Christianity,
and being placed on a results screen for that entire phrase would lead
the researcher to subject areas they may not have been aware of.
The current links in the record were created before a browse search was
even available in the catalog. Now that we have browse search, I would
be curious to hear if others think these links should now go to a browse
search or continue launching a keyword search. I know I've heard this
suggestion from publics and academics alike. I can't say I have an
opinion on it, but I think it's a worthwhile discussion to have now that
we do have a browse search that could be utilized for these links.
Kathy
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
[email protected]
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
On 7/25/2014 12:10 PM, Donald Butterworth wrote:
Kathy and All,
I have been pondering for a couple days how I would spec out an
Academic PAC Flavor. I was going to try to write out my thoughts but
decided it would be easier to understand if I just drew them. So
please find attached a starting point for what seems to me like a more
academically oriented bibliographic record display.
Here are some principles keep in mind:
* Never make a user click twice if there is a way to click once
* Must be compatible with all manner of handheld devices
* Must comply with current accessibility standards for the sight
impaired
* Must comply with current library standards (no matter how ridiculous)
* In my opinion there should be: less art, more text, less white
space, fewer headings
Note that the author and subject entries are hot links. Clicked
authors would result in an Author Browse Results Screen. Clicked
Subjects would result in a Subject Browse Results Screen.
I believe it is critical to treat the whole subject phrase as a single
entity. Treating each individual subdivision as its own searchable
entity is not helpful. Probably 10% of the records in our collection
have the subject subdivisions "Religious aspects -- Christianity." You
can imagine that the results from a keyword search for either of these
terms would be unhelpful. On the other hand clicking on the entire
phrase, such as Psychotherapy -- Religious aspects -- Christianity,
and being placed on a results screen for that entire phrase would lead
the researcher to subject areas they may not have been aware of.
That's it for me, for now. Please understand that these are my
personal meanderings and should not be considered anything officially
endorsed by my employer.
Happy Friday,
Don
---Kathy Lussier wrote ---
PAC: Academic flavor.
It might be nice to offer a different look to the PAC that defaults
to a fuller bibliographic description.
This idea is something that I think would be fairly easy to implement
by anyone who can customize the OPAC. You could create an
academic_template directory, add the customized tt2 file there, and
then contribute those changes to the community along with some
documentation telling people how to point to this directory in eg.conf
if they want to use an academic flavor.
We have sites that do use a fuller bibliographic description than the
default, but I think they do so because they find it to be useful for
all of their libraries, not just their academics. Are there other
things you (or other academics out there) would like to see in the
academic flavor of the catalog?
Kathy
--
Don Butterworth
Faculty Associate / Librarian III
B.L. Fisher Library
Asbury Theological Seminary
[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
(859) 858-2227 <tel:%28859%29%20858-2227>
