[Yulpub] MetaLib | Open discussion sessions this afternoon

[Audrey Novak]

Reminder: MetaLib open discussion this afternoon:

Wednesday, 15 Feb, 3-4:30pm, SML Lecture Hall

See below for details. -Audrey

>Colleagues,
>
>Apologies for cross-postings.
>
>I am writing to invite you to a discussion about MetaLib.  The MetaLib 
>Transition Group would like to present to you recent changes to the 
>MetaLib interface, the results of usability studies, and some 
>recommendations for additional modifications to our presentation of 
>materials within MetaLib. We would like to hear your comments about 
>MetaLib and get feedback about the proposed additional changes.  See below 
>for meeting times and places. I hope you can attend.
>
>This email also includes background information about MetaLib, usage 
>statistics and a summary of recent changes.
>
>I look forward to seeing you in February.
>
>-Audrey Novak
>For the MetaLib Transition Group:
>Alan Solomon, Audrey Novak, Jan Glover, Jennifer Weintraub, Julie Linden, 
>Katie Bauer, Karen Reardon, Kalee Sprague, Melissa Wisner
>
>Meeting Times and Place:
>Monday, 13 Feb, 3-4:430pm, SML Lecture Hall
>Wednesday, 15 Feb, 3-4:30pm, SML Lecture Hall
>
>Background and Status:
>MetaLib was made available to the public in a soft rollout (i.e., no 
>publicity, no promotion by staff) in June 2005. Readers access it from the 
>Frontdoor Database and Articles page 
>-(<http://www.library.yale.edu/databases/>http://www.library.yale.edu/databases/). 
>
>
>All active DBOW databases are included within Metalib with full 
>descriptive records. Additions and changes to DBOW are manually 
>transferred to MetaLib monthly by staff in IS&P. Updates from ExLibris to 
>the MetaLib Central Knowledge Base of resources (the CKB) are also applied 
>monthly to Metalib. Typically these updates make a handful of additional 
>resources offered at Yale searchable within MetaLib
>
>Yale’s resources consist of 117 Search and Display databases (meaning they 
>can be both searched in MetaLib and the results displayed in the Metalib 
>interface as well), 38 Search and Link (searched in MetaLib, but the 
>results link sends the user to the “native” interface of the database) and 
>491 Link only databases (the user must search in the native 
>interface).  If a user wishes to use the “Multi-Database Search”, they can 
>only use this with “Search and Display” and “Search and Link” databases, 
>not with the “Link only databases.
>
>During the first 6 months of MetaLib use in this soft implementation state 
>approximately 22,000 searches were conducted across resources available 
>through Quicksearch, 3500 searches were conducted across resources 
>presented in Multi-Database search, and 350 users logged into MetaLib. 
>(Note that Yale readers can search in MetaLib without logging 
>in).  MetaLib was used approximately 15,000 times since June. During the 
>Fall semester, average usage was 28.1/day in Sept, 142.6/day in Oct and 
>200.6 /day in Nov.
>
>Also during this half year the MetaLib Transition Group implemented 
>several changes to the interface. These changes were made as a result of 
>the installation of ML 3.13 and usability studies.  They include:
>    * Implementing the Summary Page in Quicksearch and Multi-database 
> search. This interactive page displays during the search process. From it 
> users can go directly to results before they search is completed. More 
> importantly, it presents result set size from each database before 
> records are displayed. This change eliminates the problem of not being 
> able to easily tell the size of the result set.
>    * Creating the ALL subcategory within each category. ALL is an 
> alphabetical list of all the resources mapped to all the subcategories 
> within a single category. With ML3.13 we were able to present an ordered 
> list of resources within the ALL  subcategory. In ML3.12 the list could 
> not be ordered so we did not create this subcategory.
>    * Renamed the Orbis+Morris+NHFPL Quicksearch subcategory from“Local 
> Catalogs” to “Local Books.” Patrons did not understand the term “Catalog.”
>    * Removed the Subject searching option. Usability studies suggest that 
> patrons are selecting it instead of Keyword and resources frequently do 
> not support it so it fails.
>    * To make it easier for patrons to find holdings (Call#) information, 
> particularly for Orbis, within the full record display we removed 
> bibliographic level LC and Dewey numbers, moved the link to local 
> holdings data to the top of the record and re-labeled it Holdings/Call#, 
> and moved the link to the native interface to the bottom of the full 
> record and re-labeled it Database.
>    * Changed the default display in Find Database to Brief View (database 
> name and brief description) from Table View (just database name) in 
> response to usability study results.
>    * Changed the Added to My Research icon to Added – Check “My Research” 
> in an effort to make clear that this function works something like a Bookbag.
>
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