Hi all,
Recently, NOBLE made some local customizations to config.metabib_field
to improve browse search on their local system. They would like to
contribute a branch to make these changes in Evergreen for 2.next, but I
wanted to share their changes with the community first to see if can
generate some community consensus around the changes.
1. We would like to submit a branch that enables browse search for the
complete (All Subjects) field, and disables it for the all of the other
fields that are included in the subject class. This branch would also
add a -- joiner so that the fields properly display separators.
Currently, Evergreen is indexing the individual subdivisions. By
enabling browse for the complete field, we see the full heading in the
subject browse. By disabling browse for all of the other subject
indexes, we remove subdivisions like handbooks, manuals, etc. as
something that is currently being displayed as a standalone heading (not
very useful to the user.) This branch would address the bugs reported in
https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1331506 and in
https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1331524.
Based on previous discussions on this topic, I'm fairly sure most end
users will prefer these defaults. However, I just want to make sure this
is desired before we submit any changes.
The changes would be supplied in the seed data for new Evergreen
installs, but, because we don't want to break any customizations that
may have been made to existing index definitions, most likely won't be
applied for upgrades. However, we could probably supply a SQL statement
in the release notes that lets existing sites know how to make these
changes if they want them.
2. The second change we would like to make affects the ease with which
users can find titles starting with initial articles. Currently, most of
the title indexes honor non-filing indicators, so that a title like "The
Help" will ignore "the" and file "The Help" with the H's. If a patron
inadvertently enters "the help," there is a warning that can be enabled
telling the patron they may want to try the search without "the."
However, in investigating the bug at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1321780, we discovered that
the 740 field is being handled a little differently because it is being
indexed twice, once with the non-filing characters and once without .
For example, in one catalog, "the heart sutra" is being indexed with the
h's, but is also being indexed with the t's (for the).
We would like to propose that this approach be used for all title
indexes. With this approach, the user will find a title whether or not
they include the initial articles in their search. It reduces the amount
of training that needs to be done to teach users how to use the catalog.
Of course, these additional indexes could remain a customization that is
just handled locally, but, since it makes it easier for a patron or
student to use browse, we think it's worthy of consideration for the
default indexes.
Both of these changes have already been made to the NOBLE catalog. You
can see these changes in action at
http://evergreen.noblenet.org/eg/opac/browse.
Kathy
--
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
[email protected]
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
#evergreen IRC: kmlussier
