Theme Focus: Search

Search functionality is a fairly fundamental element of each of the JISC LMS projects so it would be foolhardy of me to try and document every single blogpost. The blogposts I've linked to below give a good representation of the sorts of issues and challenges that the projects have been tackling.

One of the things that often comes up as soon as you get anywhere near a library search interface is the thorny issue of 'advanced search'. I am starting to wonder whether it is only librarians themselves who can truly love this feature. It would be interesting to look at usage stats to see whether advanced searches get as much usage as library staff think they do/should do [and also whether that usage is changing over time].

Making a user friendly 'advanced search' interface is a particularly thorny challenge. During inhouse training sessions the #SWWHEPSRCH project team got feedback that the iFind advanced search was 'a little confusing'. The #BFCESEARCH team also reported that few users chose to use the advanced search function, and those who did 'found the option boxes confusing'.

When the #BLATHULL project analysed the results of their usability testing they found that opinions were divided on the usefulness of a) a tag cloud and b) a display of 'recently added' bookcovers(they were comparing SearchWorks at Stanford University and VirgoBeta at the University of Virginia). If the users are divided in their feedback then this makes getting the interface right all the more difficult.

Of course, implementing a new search often uncovers all sorts of data conundrums:
- http://yocalcat.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/progress-report-search-interface/
- http://blacklightathull.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/union-search-and-revised-categories/

The UX2.0 project crafted some indepth technical guides to share how they're implementing faceted search, Apache Solr and Dublin Core Metadata:
- Part 1
- Part 2

The #AQUABROWSERUX project also shared their know how around how you can develop realistic user tests when looking at search functionality.

The #ENCLAVELMS team have written a relevant blogposts on whether wordclouds are the future of search and also their thoughts on what library search functionality could be usefully embedded within their VLE.

Lastly, just to mix things up a bit, here are a couple of high profile and large-scale beta search interfaces that may be of interest:
- http://library.wales.org/catcymru/
- British Library search beta

Theme Focus: Open Source

The key projects with an interest in open source are as follows:
- #OSSVIAB: Project to produce a detailed evaluation of functionality to UK Core Specifications requirements of the open source library system, Evergreen. [project blog]
- #BLATHULL: Case study examining the implementation of the open source Blacklight discovery interface system over the library catalogue at the University of Hull. [project blog]
- #JANGLEFB: Create API connectors (via the OSS Jangle framework) between the Sirsi Dynix library management system and Facebook [project blog]
- #CREDAUL: Project to select and implement an Open Source next generation resource discovery tool (http://vufind.org/) to contain all the records of Sussex and Brighton Universities. [project blog]
- #VUFINDKEVEN: project implementing a re-skinned VuFind interface for the Kent University library catalogue. [project blog]

There's an associated JISC/SCONUL event happening early next year which you might want to attend if you have an interest in open source and academic libraries. It's a 2-day event which is taking place in Edinburgh from Tuesday 25th January to Wednesday 26th January 2011 as part of Mashed Libraries:
- More information about the 'Haggis & Mash' event
- The registration page for the event

Tabbloid #6 5-11-2010

Open publication - Free publishing - More lmsmash

Last weeks Tabbloid is on the lean side with just three entries but as always it proves that quality, not quantity, wins the day - If you are interested in the techie side of VuFind then the #vufindkeven 'Developer's View of VuFind' will be an illuminating read and certainly shows that even a good piece of software leaves plenty of room for improvement when being implemented. The #blathull team hit an important final milestone in their project last week and had a big aha/doh moment of enlightenment when they implemented a single, unified search index and their experience provides the programme with a useful cautionary tale for anyone else hoping to do the same - happily it sounds like they solved the mystery without too much head scratching :)

Last Thursday David Kay and I had a catch up meeting with Ben Showers and over a cup of hot ginger cordial we discussed the following:
- Now that a good number of the projects have submitted their final report blogposts we'll start drawing together and reporting back on any emerging themes. Those emerging themes will be posted on this blog and comments and input from the projects will be very welcome - particularly suggestions for any additional themes that you feel are key for us to include in our final report.
- In the next couple of weeks Ben will be inviting you all to complete a survey to tease out further questions that we can explore in our synthesis report and also give you the opportunity to give feedback on the JISC LMS project process (i.e. using blogs to report on your progress, and the Google code site etc).
- All projects are welcome to attend the strand events. The closest to confirmation is the OSS strand event which will take place on the 25 - 26 January in Edinburgh. The event is piggybacking on the Haggis & Mash Mashed Library event on the 25th January. The 25th will be a very much hands on event and the 26th will be a strategy-level event aimed at drawing senior library and information services staff into the discussion.