WebPac Implementation Team
Submitted Enhancement Requests
10/01/2001
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Additional Limit Options (Pull-Down Menu)
When designing the limit options in the WebPac, librarians are currently faced with a feast or famine situation: we can draw up short lists of basic options suitable for the average user, or lengthy ones suitable for the power user but intimidating and confusing to others. It should be possible to offer our patrons a short list of basic options followed by a "more limits" option . The latter choice would open a second pull-down menu, or perhaps a second limit search webpage, offering a complete (or at least much more comprehensive) list of available options. (This choice should be available for both the post-search and pre-search limit screens.)
For example Material Type might include: Book, Journal, Video, Score, Manuscript, Sound Recording -- a second menu might offer: Maps, Map Manuscripts, Music Manuscrpts, Films, CD Audio, Slides, Kits, U.S. Documents, Theses, Conference Proceedings, Festschrift, etc.
Similarly, for example, for LANGUAGE: English, French, German, Spanish, (etc) -- (Second Menu - the complete list) Amharic ...... Zulu.
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Multiple Limit Options (Check Boxes)
Provide check boxes next to all limit options in pull-down menus. This would allow the user to combine several limits of the same type using a Boolean "or." Currently the pull-down menus on the limit screen allow only one limit at a time. However, users are likely to be looking for books in English or Spanish, for a DVD or a videocassette, for an item in the Biology or the Medical Library.
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Marking Records for export
Include two check boxes on all browse display screens. One that makes it possible to "Mark" all of the entries on the screen and a second that would mark the entire set of retrieved records. This would be a particularly important enhancement to Advanced Keyword Searching where it is currently necessary to mark each individual entry on a successive number of browse display screens.
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SHELF status
Show the SHELF status of an item in the Brief Display when exporting records.
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Export Print Default
In the WWWOptions entry EXPORT_SELECT_TABLE, permit libraries to choose the which values will be selected by default by making the order they are listed significant so that on the Export Saved Records menu screen, the default choice for the "Send List To:" menu could be set to "Screen" rather than "E-Mail". Most people at library computers want to print directly from the browser, and this eliminates an extra step.
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Express Print Button
Create a short-cut to enable the user to print the currently displayed record, in brief format (including circulation status), using just two mouse clicks: click on ExpressPrint button, click on browser print icon. Currently this mundane operation requires 6 mouse clicks: Save Record, Export Saved Record, Screen, Brief display, Submit, browser icon.
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DISPLAY_856
I would like to suggest an enhancement to the WWWOption DISPLAY_856. As it is currently implemented one can specify which subfields of the 856 are to display to the public, but all of those subfields are part of the link. This makes it difficult to easily distinguish between the URL itself and any accompanying notes. Furthermore, if the 856|z note is long, or if there are multiple URLs with notes, you end up with a box that just contains link text. We feel that this is not easy to read. Dartmouth suggests that the capability of this option be expanded so that we can specify all the subfields that should be included in the display, as well as which of those subfields should be hotlinked. We would love to be able to put the note on a different line from the url as well. So if it were possible to indicate line breaks that would be great.
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Highlighted Search Text
On a search results page there is a text box with the current search strategy (to the right of the DROP_DOWN menu). Our suggestion is that the contents of that box be highlighted and the box itself be the current active box, so the user could start typing to enter a new search strategy. It saves the keystrokes necessary to click in that box and highlight or select all of the text of the search just completed.
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Send list to PRINT
On the Export Selected records screen we would like to add a PRINT option to the "Send list to" section. If it isn't possible to format the data and invoke the browser's print command, then a possible next best approach would be to format the data as if for email, but put it up on the screen with an instruction at the top of the screen that tells the patron to use the browser's PRINT command to print the records.
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Additional Navigational Buttons in Staff View
When using My Millennium and logging in as a staff person you have the ability to look at attached records. We have found it frustrating that from an attached record display one has to use the Regular Display button to get back to the
Bibliographic record before one can do another search. We recommend that more buttons be available during the attached record view as this would save steps for staff.
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URL in Export displays
I have just learned that the options for exporting URL data from the Web OPAC are limited/non-existent. We feel that it is essential that users be able to export the URL of an electronic resource no matter what format they are using to export. For instance, saving a group of records to forward to a colleague is somewhat pointless if they have to go search each of them again to discover the url. For ProCite/EndNote exports it is essential to be able to isolate the 856 from the other y-tagged data. The fact that you can't even select 'y' tagged data for the Full display is quite frustrating, although obviously we would want just the 856 and not all y-tagged data. Please consider providing the capability to include data from the 856, particularly the URL, in all export formats.
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Email Text Box in Export
We think it is really great that you can choose your own subject line for exported records that are getting emailed. It would be really helpful if we could also have a text box so we could include a short message to precede the records. Often we're using this to send records to someone else and in order to include a message explaining why we're sending them we have to email them to ourselves, and then forward that note with the added message.
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Spacing Between Records in Export
In call C528315 I discovered that it is not possible to have blank lines inserted between records when exporting records from the Web OPAC to email. It was suggested that I send this in as an enhancement request, hence this note. I would like to see this implemented as a WWWOption so that sites can choose how many blank lines they want between records.
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URL Functionality
Currently in the Web OPAC one can either open URLs within a frame, or open a URL and have it replace the current window with the OPAC session. Some of us here really liked the frames approach because it offered us the ability to have the Return to the Catalog link remain on the screen. Unfortunately, a number of sites that we link to behave poorly when opened within an existing frame (because they're trying to do their own frames), and we have had to abandon this method in our catalog. We would like to recommend that an option be added to specify that the URL you are going to should open in a new window. Ideally we'd like to specify as much as possible about the new window that the URL will open into (size, scrollbars, etc). In our implmentation of the Web OPAC we're popping up a new window to display help topics. We're using javascript to do this, and that lets us control the size of the new window and its properties.
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Next Record Button Behavior in Staff View
When I log in to staff mode, records display in staff mode. If I click on the "Patron View" button, the "Next Record" button disappears and I have to return to browse in order to advance to the next item in my result set. Is there any way we can retain the "Next" and "Previous" buttons?
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5000 Hit Limit in Author/Title
As explained below, the system fails to notify the patron that their result set may be incomplete. Please consider enhancing the behavior of the system for Author/Title searches. I am writing to follow up on your report that "you get no indication that the Author search for United States hit a result set maximum of 5,000 and that your words in title limit is working against an incomplete Author result set." This feature is hard-coded in the system and cannot be modified at the user level at this time.
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“Request Selected Item in Staff View
Currently library staff logged into My Millennium do not have the request selected item option offered in Staff View, thus much toggling between Staff View and Public View is required if on wants to demonstrate the function or simply wants to request an item. Offer the “Request Selected Item” option in Staff View as well as Public View.
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Millennium Timeouts
We would like the ability to establish two separate timeouts within My Millennium. This would allow one timeout for users accessing their records or requesting material while the 2nd timeout would be used by library staff permitting them to keep a session open for more prolonged work.
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Request Journal Article Button
It would be nice if the patron info screen generated for serials with check in records attached could be less confusing for patrons. Currently the request Journal feature is found on the same form for patrons who would like to request an entire volume using the Request Selected Item function. We would like the Catalog to generate a second request button (similar to the Request Selected Item button) in the full record display when the system detects a check-in record attached to a serial. This button would be labeled “Request Journal Article” and would take the patron to a page where the appropriate patron verification/article text boxes would appear thus differentiating between an article request and a whole volume request. This would make the article Request/Item request page less cluttered and confusing.
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System Generated Messages
We find the wording of certain system generated messages that patrons receive when using the Request Selected Item function in the webpac too vague. We would like to see more local control over the wording of certain system generated messages. For example, if a particular item is requested using the Request Selected Item and Innopac finds a match in the determiner table for anon-circ loan rule, patrons are given the oblique message, “No requestable items”. This message makes no sense to the patron or to most circulation staff for that matter.
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Profile Request Options for Particular PTYPES
Currently the request rule file allows the ability to open the request function for certain PTYPEs while blocking others; it does not, however, have the capability of profiling request options for particular PTYPEs. We would like the ability to profile request options for particular PTYPEs, i.e., faculty PTYPEs would be allowed to request all material types from circulating locations whereas students and other registered library users would be allowed only to request material that is off-site.