[Sigia-l] Resources for Database Search Screens?

[Ellen Halteman / Kathryn Jigursky / Mary Taylor]

Greetings SIGIA Folks -I'm longtime lurker but not-too-frequent poster
who's banging her head against how to put together the search screens
for an database of digitized historical items (photos, sheet music,
railroad timetables, tintypes...).  I've reviewed a couple of websites
with image databases (such as the National Gallery of Art) and am trying
to come up with an example to give our programmer of what fields to
include in an "Advanced/Expert" search screen. At the moment the plan is
to have a Basic/Keyword search which would scan the Title, Subject, and
Description fields (rather than forcing the user to deal w/LC subject
headings) but we need to come up with an option for more detailed
searches.  It may be procrastination on my part, but I wish I had some
examples of what types of screens worked/didn't work or if there was a
really good example of how to create a detailed/Boolean search screen
that wouldn't scare off the local history buffs and 4th graders we're
designing this project for.

thanks for any suggestions,

mk taylor .: program manager sacramento history online
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