Comments on LibraryTechNZ: Find, Out.

Hi Philip, Thanks for the feedback. I'm very happ...

2009-07-03T16:22:45.593+12:00

Hi Philip,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm very happy you were able to use Find to reveal relevant collection items that you might not have otherwise found - that's one of the things I really love to hear.

With the NZETC records (as with other Matapihi records) we don't actually hold an item's thumbnail, but link to it. That means if a partner's web site is down, the thumbnail and link won't work, as you discovered. I just tried it, though, and it looks like NZETC is back on line.

Wording was/is a particularly thorny issue with Find. It's difficult to strike the balance with what language works for all of our customers. In some cases, we made a best guess, and I'm sure we will revisit this frequently.

Dates too proved an interesting challenge. For instance, since we are searching across such varied metadata, how do we properly distinguish between a book published in 1925, and a manuscript written between 1920-1930 (or, better yet, dated 192?). We definitely need to refine how this works.

The RefWorks integration is an interesting one. We'll have to do some more investigation here.

Finally, there is a search history, though it is a little hidden. If you go to 'Guest e-Shelf' (or just 'e-Shelf' if you've signed in) there's a link on the left called 'This session's searches' which provides a history.

Hope this helps clarify some things. Thanks again for your comments.

Some further feedback from me: 1. I found the int...

2009-07-03T10:10:17.273+12:00

Some further feedback from me:

1. I found the integration of resources really worked for my subject area of domestic violence. I discovered online cartoons which are relevant and useful and which I would not otherwise have found (eg Moreu from TAPUHI). …now the next step to explore is how I could integrate them with the resources on the website I manage….
2. The link to cartoons listed from NZETC wasn’t so good as the records don’t have either thumbnails or descriptions & the NZETC was temporarily down
3. Push to RefWorks worked for me, which is fantastic. However I found I couldn’t push abstracts through on some of the records, eg INNZ. Abstracts worked with a TAPUHI cartoon record though
4. ‘Check availability’ is very easy to use and an excellent concept. However I found the wording initially misleading: “just click 'GO' button to get to full-text” when full-text is not online. Using ‘Show only: Online’ works better
5. I love the concept of User Tags applied to such a comprehensive view of NZ resources
6. Subject refinement is great to have, even given the resources can use different thesaurii
7. A date limit more recent than ‘after 2007’ would be handy
8. ‘Type’ limit options seem to work well & as I would expect
9. INNZ record to Refworks – no abstract & author mapped to ‘Authors, Secondary’ field in RefWorks instead of ‘Authors’ for some reason
10. Search history would be a useful addition

Congratulations Mike & the team behind this. I thi...

2009-07-03T09:12:28.814+12:00

Congratulations Mike & the team behind this. I think it shows a lot of promise & potential. I haven't given it a serious workout yet but will do so & let you know what I think.

One initial little comment - I saw the email list announcement, went to check it out & couldn't find a good blurb about the initiative. Can you put an 'About' link upfront that goes to this post (ie. "Find, Out")

Cheers

Philip