Kathy and I are members of a CDL group
looking for major user-interface problems
in a WorldCat interface. This is looking for
major general-user problems, and using
the U of Washington Libraries WorldCat
interface to find out if the problems in finding
hardcopy and digital cartographic materials
still occur in MELVYL or if there are new problems.
So ... Kathy and I would appreciate receiving your
thoughts on major general-user problems by July 27 (this
task force has a *very* short time line - interim
report by July 25, final report by end of August)
on finding Our Stuff, either on MELVYL or
on WorldCat - please use the U of Washington
interface if you're going to be kind to Kathy
and me and experiment with this:-)
http://www.lib.washington.edu/
The following ones I've listed are just
my favorites. Am sure I've missed obvious ones.
I did notice in trying out the UWA interface
that relevance sorting works quite well -
just the normal problems (e.g., in subject
headings state names are often abbreviated,
not spelled out, and the likelihood of a general
user typing in "calif" is low - and "CA" appears
only in publisher's addresses)
II. Maps and GIS
a. Maps: Mary
i. Titles are frequently generic, leading to large numbers
of false drops, especially on the single-box search on initial screen.
ii. Users generally need information for small areas at the
sheet level; we catalog generally only at the series level.
b. GIS: Kathy
i. Users have difficulty finding digital data in online catalog.
Any assistance is much appreciated.
Mary
-- Mary Lynette Larsgaard Director, Map Library Assistant Head, Map and Imagery Laboratory Davidson Library University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara CA 93106-9010 USA mary@library.ucsb.edu voice: 805/893-4049; 2779, reference desk fax: 805/893-8799
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