[Sigia-l] multiple search index usability/conceptual model

[Blake Carver]

I'm going to just answer to multiple emails on this thread here all at once,
hopefully I can make it useful

Ziya wrote:
>>I find the following works pretty well for all/most cases:
>>Search   |__________|  in  [Pop up]   (Go)
>>[Pop up] is the (hopefully) short list of all index/venue/database/etc
that
>>can be searched by the current user. If the site is dynamic, this can be
set
Why this won't work:
We have well over 300 "things" that could go in the [Pop Up], from god only
knows how many different vendors, who want us to do god only knows what with
the search strings before they get to them. This is *almost* impossible. For
all practical purposes this is impossible at most larger libraries right
now.
We are dealing with an endless number of completely separate systems that
are impossible to integrate without some major work.

Annie gave Bartleby as an example.
If we were like Bartleby.com, things would be wonderful, but right now we
are like yahoo, we point the way to web sites from all over the vendor
world, and have no control over what's there, and nothing is consistent.

Tanya pointed to UT.
UT [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/] is not really doing much with their pull
down menu, other than to send the search to parts of the site they have
control over, or at least I *think* that's what they are doing, I can't tell
for sure. I thin it will point to a Db or something in the Catalog, but will
not search through multiple-separate Db's content. This is a great idea,
very helpful, but it's not integrating the Db's. I like what they've done
there so far.

Jeff Wrote:
>>You could have a default search "sphere," and on the results page, have
>>something like "Didn't find what you were looking for? Try your search for
>>[search term] in [database name]!" The [database name] could be a
pulldown,
>>or could be repeated for each resource.
I think you're on to something there.
And I think that's what UT is doing, searching home made meta-data on the
Db's to point users to the best place to begin to actually search for an
article. Right now most library search engines do not provide any decent
feed back at all, and the users get lost and give up.


Large libraries have an endless array of products available on a cavernous
wed site that usually does a poor job of pointing the beginning user to
where they need to be. Most of the time they fail to even give the user a
starting point.
e.g., try to answer this question using most library web sites:
What is the best Database to use for finding articles in Sociology?

I doubt it can be done, but this is how people approach me at the reference
desk every day, and I imagine it's how they approach the site every day as
well.


-----------------------------
Blake Carver
LISNews.com
Librarian and Information Science News
http://www.lisnews.com