WebPac Implementation Team
Responses to New Library Catalog Feedback
We appreciate the time you took to comment on our efforts. Please understand that some functions and options are turned on temporarily so that we can evaluate their usefulness. Not everything you see on any given day will necessarily appear in the final version. (Last updated 7/16/01 JKM.)
Message How do I print a list of materials on reserve for a course? 7/12/01
Response Once you have the course record displayed, use the Browser's Print button to print the list.
Message I was trying to search "university Press of K**" and had zero results. "University press of kentucky" yields 816. Then I tried to truncate the last word of the search as Ken* and it worked. It appears that you have to type at least three letters before you can truncate. Is that documented somewhere? 3/30/01
ResponseYou must type at least two characters before the truncation symbol. We'll update the help screen to reflect this.
Message Some things that don't seem to work in Staff View:
- highlighting of keywords found in record
- hot-linked subjects etc.
3/28
Response The highlighting and hotlinks should be visible when you click on Public View.
Message The timeout for being logged in as a patron is really awfully short. If you're going to request items and spend a bit of time thinking or even (it seems) refining your seach, you get kicked out. 3/28
Response The issue is probably with your browser set up. A set of recommendations that detail browser settings will be developed. For now check your browser preferences:
- Cookies must be accepted
- Cached is turned on, but direct the browser to compare the cached page to the page on the network every time.
Message I thought that if I selected "request item" and entered my name and my ID number, but left PIN blank (I don't know whether I already have a PIN or not), I would be given the opportunity to create a PIN. That seems not to be the case. 3/28
Response You already had a PIN so you were not given the option to create one. Have Circulation staff delete the old PIN from your record; you should then be prompted to create a a new PIN.
Message Where are the manuscript call numbers? 3/22
Response Because we used to use a special screen in RLIN to catalog manuscripts, RLIN stored the call number in a completely different MARC tag from where any other call number is usually found. Recently cataloged manuscripts have had the call number inserted into the item record. A project will be done to move all the manuscript call numbers down to the item and then the missing call number problem will be solved.
Message When I want to find something about a book on-order or in-process how can I do that in the new library catalog? 3/16
Response The Webpac Team has been working under the assumption that Bibliographers will be able to use Innopac review files in the character based system to get at the data they might need to accomplish their work. Currently, access to review files is limited to tech services staff. There will need to be a process put in place to train bibliographers and to make review files (create lists function) accessible to more staff. Review files should be able to meet the needs of all bibliographers. They will not present results immediately, the way BRS does, but you will be able to create sets of in-process and on-order records.
Message "On Shelf" : Why has this terminology been chosen? The BRS catalog uses the status "not checked out". 3/16
Response We haven't addressed the circulation status messages yet in the new web catalog of Innopac, though a group of us have started discussing it. Changes to the circulation status messages should come soon.
Message Can you add a Print option on the Export Records screen? 3/15
Response We don't have control over that text. We'll submit an enhancement request to the vendor. In the meantime, the way to print is to Export to the Screen and then use the browser's Print function.
Message I know about the keyword = adjacency searching rather than boolean and searching, but what about stop words? A keyword search on t: idea vernacular turns up zip, while keyword on t: idea of the vernacular comes up with the desired item. Why? 3/8/01
Response This system doesn't have stop words. The only words you should remove from your search terms are initial articles in regular Title searches. In this case the words of the are between your search words idea vernacular and so your search words are not considered to be adjacent.
Message The Return to Browse button disappears. 3/5/01
Response Thank you, we've reported it.
Message Can we display more characters of the Title in the index display? Sometimes it chops them off mid-word. 3/2/01
Response We're asking the vendor if this is possible.
Message How about being able to move to adjacent records while you're in MARC display? 3/2/01
Response Staff who are primarily interested in the MARC display should use the Staff login to the Web OPAC. Contact any member of the WebPAC team for connection instructions.
Message Current keyword search help screen has "start over" button at the top of screen. The search button is at the bottom where you can't see it from this screen. Hit the 'start over' button when I typed in my search. This isn't the first time I've done this. Also, don't like the start over button at the top of this feedback screen either. A little TOO prominent. 3/2/01
Response We have control over the keyword screen. We'll look at this. We can also take a look at the feedback screen, though since in its present form its only around for the beta test, I'm not terribly concerned about its appearance.
(I don't mean to imply that we won't have a feedback/suggestion box type of thing when we go live, just that we'll probably design it to be more user friendly.)
Message Any way you can configure system to display more than 10 records at a time? It's very slow going when you are scrolling through a retrieved list. Hit the next page key, wait for the records to display on the screen. Examine the records, check the records for future export to myself, hit the 'save marked records', wait for the records to display on the screen again, then hit the next page key for the next set of 10 and redo the process all over. Very slow from home with a modem. And it's before 8:30 am (i.e. the network should be quick now) 3/2/01
Response We don't have control over these screens. There are no configuration elements that govern how many records display at a time.
Message Menu bar at top: 'Feedback' - don't feel that this is needed past beta-testing. I would rather see "Questions" or "Ask a Librarian" there. 3/1/01
Response We will probably make this different for the general release to the public this fall. There are forms built into the Innopac software for general suggestions as well as books the library should acquire. I could see us providing a link in the header to a page that would offer those options (if not more). I believe our intention is that the Ask a Librarian link will be available from the "Help" button.
Message Eliminate the frames format when you select an electronic resource. I think people are smart enough to find their way back to the library catalog. Takes up way too much real-estate on the screen AND it is not necessary. 3/1/01
Response We want to have more feedback on this before we make any decisions. There are implications for doing this when users are "logged in" that we need to consider.
Message Regular Display button makes no sense. 3/1/01
Response I believe you only see this button when you are in a MARC display. In that context I think it does make sesne. However, I see that when you are logged in to the Staff view that the buttons are labelled Staff View and Public View. Would MARC View/Public View make more sense?
Message I'm looking for the Rare Book copy of Willa Cather's "O pioneers!". So I select an author/title search on cather/pioneers. That gives me three records, but on that screen no option to limit to Spec Coll.(Why not?) But it does have a "return to browse" button (even though I've never been to "browse"), clicking that gives me 52 records beginning with "Cather--", so I'm now in an author search mode, the title part of my original author/title search has vanished. However, from this screen I *can* do a limit/sort which I do, limiting it to Spec Colls. Now I get a list of 42 records, beginning, at least, with Cather Willa. The 24th record is for "O pioneers!. I select that and get 3 records, none of them in Spec Coll, so apparently my earlier limit has been discontinued. All this I find enormously confusing, never really knowing where the catalog is leading me and being denied the limit/sort option just when I need it. The irony here is that there *is* a copy of the first edition of "O pioneers!" at Rare Book PZ3.C2858O, but it's not listed in BRS either, so that's not INNO's problem. *My* problem is that my ability to search in strange and wonderful ways is thwarted by a predetermined set of pathways which not only do I not understand (yet, at least) but which don't do what I want. This, BTW, is why I have for years stuck to DCLOS, with all it's glorious inefficiency but profound flexibility, while avoiding DCIS. 3/1/01
Response First of all, Author/Title searching is still being worked on (and is surely not functioning to its potential). We just sent in a request to Innovative to add a number of fields that were missing in our 'words in title' scan. Author/Title runs a author search, then limits by words in a title.
Okay - so you got an author search, Cather, Willa - then a limit by pioneers. So the Author search created an index screen that you skipped over when you limited the search by pioneers. I suspect there is no limit button because you are actually performing a keyword search on the Cather, Willa set (?)(Author/Title is like a hybrid search). Anyway, when you selected return to browse you got sent back to the 'index' screen for Cather, Willa. Seems to me that a search like this may just work better in keyword (a:cather and t:pioneers -- gets the 3 records)
I think whats annoying here is that Author/Title is unable to stay in the Author/Title mode when we get beyond the result set.
I'm not sure if there is a fix here (although I think we need to look at the 'Another Search" button ). We will see what Author/title looks like after we get the additional fields covered.
It also looks like the book you are looking for needs to be cataloged, it doesn't seem to be in the system.
Message Instructions "Ex: 12345X from your Dartmouth ID. No DartID? Type barcode with no spaces" are confusing. My id card says ID#, not DartID, so I typed in my barcode which didn't work. Don't like the error messages you get for refusal. I wasn't sure what to retype in. Did I need to type in my middle initial? Did I get my pin wrong? Did I get the DartID or barcode wrong? Can we clarify messages at all?
When I get in and view my items checked out, I hate the fact that if I change the sort, it changes it back everytime I look at one of the books I have checked out. Very annoying.
The other thing that is aggravating is if I look at one record, then want to go to the next one, I don't know how to do it. If I hit BACK in the frame, I go back to the login screen.
I vote no for frames (everywhere!) - too easy to get lost. 3/1/01
Response The instructions for how to enter your data come from a system file which is shared between the telnet version of this function and the Web version. We are limited in the number of characters that can be used for the description and what is in use now is what Circulation felt best conveyed what information was required. We'll take another look and see if there's anything we can do to make this more clear, but we felt that just saying ID# was too vague.
Unfortuntely, we don't control the text of the error message.
We'll report to Innovative that the Sort gets lost.
At one point there were security implications with not using the frame in the patron info display. The subgroup that is looking at patron functions is still working on its recommendations, so thank you for your comments.
I believe that the design of the screen assumes that you'll use the button that lists how many items you have to get back to the list of checked out items. I don't think there's a lot we can do about this.
Message This may have nothing to do with the new catalog, but since neither DCLOS or DCIS shows what I assume to be an authority cross ref, here goes: on a subject search for MCCLINTOCK, I get 5 results, 3 of them cross refs. The second one MCCLINTOCK SEE MCLINTOCK [actually he signed his name M'Clintock] is fine. The 4th one MCCLINTOCK LEOPOLD SIR is odd. It's obviously the same guy; shouldn't that have been snared by the authority control? 2/28/01
Response This was an authority control issue as opposed to a webpac issue. The authority record for M'Clintock, Francis Leopold,|cSir,|d1819-1907 doesn't have a cross reference for McClintock, Leopold... I corrected the offending records and will look into having the other form of his name added to the authority record.
Message A keyword search on BOOK OF HOURS limited to manuscripts yields no results, but we all know they're in there, because a title search on BOOK OF HOURS, limited to manuscripts, gives us 34 records, BUT at least 6 of those records, including the first 5, don't give call numbers, which are readily available in BRS. Whazzup? 2/28/01
Response The limits applied to keyword searches are not working correctly. We've asked Innovative to investigate.
The missing call numbers have to do with how manuscripts are cataloged in RLIN and workflows that have changed since we started cataloging in Innopac. We'll initiate a cleanup project to get the call numbers to display.
Message I have noticed that a keyword search for "new york" now finds items published in New York. It appears that this field was included when the keyword index was rebuilt. Any chance this can be corrected by Innovative? 2/28/01
Response Innovative is investigating this.
Message In the limit screen (in my case post-Title search) under locations, it seems odd to have "Micro-text" rather than Jones Media or Jones Multimedia (not sure which is correct). 2/28/01
Response The location limits have not been configured yet.
Message Following the demonstration last week at USC/CMDC, I tried the self-renewal function that Becca demonstrated by accessing my record, but I was not given the option to renew books. Did I misunderstand something? Is this feature not yet enabled? 2/28/01
Response We turned that on just for the meeting. It hasn't been left on because when it is turned on it is also turned on for the View Your Record via telnet that is available to the entire campus. I don't believe we've made a final decision yet on whether to offer this function to the public.
Message I just made a journal article request. This type of request uses the checkin record for holdings information. I got the following note when the request processed. Is there any plan to clean up notes like the SRR info from the check-ins? They're going to be a bit confusing to the public. Your request has been sent to the library *SRR BINDING PULL SLIP* Baker Stacks PC2001 .F75 2/27/01
Response We have reported this to Innovative for cleanup. The SRR note is not appearing in the public display of the record, just in the response page after having submitted a request.
Message Is it possible to arrange for a consistent way to launch a search? For instance, AUTHOR, TITLE, SUBJECT, and NUMBER searches can be launched by the nearly-universal RETURN keystroke. AUTHOR/TITLE and KEYWORD cannot; why not?
Also can't the search launch button be consistently called SEARCH, and not SUBMIT ABOVE SEARCH (AUTHOR/TITLE) or whatever. (I find this AUTHOR/TITLE button especially annoying because it sits atop the much shorter START OVER button, which I've more than a couple of times pushed without looking too closely & then wondered what had happened to my search.) Also, in the KEYWORD window the search button is below the currrent screen (at least on my 15" monitor); scrolling down to get at it is a nuisance--but perhaps you want to force the user to read all the verbiage before seeing the button? (No, that sounds too Machiavellian!) 2/27/01
ResponsePlease see earlier responses (below) about pressing RETURN to launch searches. Essentially we're dealing with browser-specific behavior in many cases. The Start Over button has proven to be problematic, and we'll be changing how it is presented. This will improve the likelihood that pressing RETURN will submit your search.
The inconsistency between SEARCH and SUBMIT ABOVE SEARCH is an oversight and will be corrected.
The length of the Keyword screen will be looked at. Though, since we need to present all of the possible limit options, there may not be a lot we can do.
Message I did a keyword search for Webster and got a bunch of stuff, but when modified by location to Spec Coll got diddly. What are the odds of that???
Also, re: material types...where is "audiovisual"? 2/27/01
Response The location limit on keyword searches seems to be broken. We've referred this to Innovative.
What are you looking for with audiovisual? We have a sound recording limit and a video limit. Do we need one that combines them?
Message 89-A151 The record above (search by OCLC/RLIN number) is for a manuscript and reveals a couple of display problems. The 583 field is displaying and should not, the 541|e, which contains the call number, is not displaying and should. Has it been determined whether the 541|e can display in the call number box? If it cannot then another cleanup project is on the horizon... While I'm here I noticed recently that the cop.# that follows the call number in the item display box is derived from the Innopac item fixed field "COP" and not from the 950|e. We print spine labels from the 950|e, the COP field is maintained manually and may or may not be 100% accurate -- have we explored whether the 950|e can be displayed instead? 2/27/01
Response Innovative has been asked to suppress the 583 from the public displays. The 541|e is a cleanup project (moving the data to the item record's call number field.)
The COP issue has been referred to the record display subgroup for further analysis.
Message I discovered I could not save a record while I was in the MARC display. One has to go back to Regular Display first. Is that a bug or is it by design? Once I had saved some records, the Export Saved Records button showed up during MARC display (which made the whole thing even more annoying because the Save Record button was still absent). 2/24/01
Response The export options are only offered from a full record display, an index browse display or a record browse display.
Message Here's another strange one, maybe similar to the E. M. Forster thing I stumbled on yesterday.In doing an author search for the Marquis de Sade, the first item is: Sade Marquis De 1740 1814 [general entry] 1 120 days of Sodom and other writings. 1987 -- see Selections. English. 1987 The last three words are highlighted. Clicking on them flips you to a page that makes little sense, to me, anyway, including three identical lines of gibberish. 2/23/01
Response We know about this too. Innovative has a fix that we will be loading with the next supplemental update of the system.
Message Is it possible to change the order in which option buttons appear on record display screens? I'm talking about the beige(?) colored buttons not the green ones at the top of each screen.
When you run a search and retrieve one record the buttons appear begining with "Another Search, Modify Search, Start Over..." reading from left to right. When you retrieve 2 or more results for your search and then display a record the buttons begin with "Previous Record, Next Record, Return to Browse..." Could these three buttons, "Previous Record..." be made to appear at the end of the string instead of the beginning? That would place "Previous Record..." after "Request Selected Item."
The change would result in all buttons always appearing in the same order. At the moment "Another Search" may appear in the first spot (when 1 record is retrieved) or the fourth spot (when 2 or more records are retrieved). 2/23/01
Response These buttons are system-generated and we have no control over their order. We have requested that they be placed consistently. We have no idea whether this will be implemented.
Message I'd rather see the 245 title display in response to a search than the added title I searched. For instance enjoyment of music has an accompanying set of recordings called Recordings for the Enjoyment of music and the Norton scores. It would be much more helpful if that appeared in the display responding to a query for "enjoyment of music" than the added title "enjoyment of music". 2/23/01
Response We actually have the system set up to display 245's but your example is interesting. The first screen you get is what we've been calling an index display. So the title index shows every occurrance of enjoyment of music The first entry is the sound recording (no subtitle so it got isolated). The other entry is for the 4 books. If we had two copies of the sound recordings then clicking on the first entry would have taken you to a screen with the title Recordings for the Enjoyment of music... But since you only had one hit on the sound recording you didn't get to see that screen. There isn't anything we can do about the initial index display. But you might find this isn't a problem with most searches.
Also, if you limit that first screen by sound recordings you find the record.
Message Doing a KEYWORD search - a:fulbrook and t:national I retrieve my result and display the record. I click the "Another Search" button and return to the KEYWORD screen. Is it possible to have the TAB button activate the Keyword search box first, instead of the green buttons at the top of the screen? This makes more sense as a user - I know I can use the mouse but TAB-ing here would be quicker.
As it is I have to TAB 11 times to reach the Keyword search box. 2/22/01
Response This has been fixed.
Message Doing Author/Title searches I retrieve a record, look at it and then wish to go back to the A/T search screen. On two occasions this afternoon when I clicked on the "Another Search" button I've been returned to the "Author" search screen instead of the A/T screen. On other occasions the program has operated as I want it to, i.e. returning me to the A/T screen. Is this inconsistency a bug? I hope the correct path for "Another Search" is to return the user to the same screen they originally searched. 2/22/01
Response We have reported this bug to Innovative.
Message Doing an author search on FORSTER E M, the first entry reads: 1 Abinger edition of E. M. Forster (London, England). 1972 -- see Works. 1972, with the last two words highlighted. When you click on that, you get the same screen, with the scarlet notice: Your limiting title was not found and was therefore not used What's happening here? 2/22/01
Response This one we already know about. When you clicked on Works you ran an author/title search (forster e m and works). They accomplish this by doing some sort of limit by words in title when the author is forster e m. Apparently we have a few fields missing from our limit by words in title index, including 800 |t (where the title Works lives). We have opened a call on this and it will be fixed as soon as possible.
Message One thing I'm really going to miss is being able to use a medium display to list dozens if not hundreds of records (eg, Melville's Moby-Dick) which I could then skim through looking for particular features. This was easy to do in both DCIS and DCLOS, but I see no way in WebPac, where you have to open record after record individually to get anything more than the brief display. The extended display just seems to add location & availability. Any chance of something similar? I'd hate to see our brave new world cramping our style! 2/22/01
Response Innovative currently provides a brief display in the Save/Export module of the catalog. Unfortunately, at the moment we can't use it because it is not able to display item record call numbers. Our fear is that users will create a list in brief display and have some incorrect call numbers derived from the bibliographic record. Also we would like to be able to define which fields would be visible in export brief display. Libraries have been asking Innovative to work on this and we hope that in the not to distant future we will be able to provide it.
Message An author search on TEY JOSEPHINE gives 8 results. The second and third results (The Daughter of Time) appear identical. Maybe just a mistake, but if we could have something akin to the old tech display we could better compare the entries. While not important in this instance it could make a great deal of difference in dealing with, say, supposedly identical entries for rare books. 2/22/01
Response Try the MARC Display button. Alternatively, log in with the Web OPAC Staff login and you'll be able to see all the gory details of the records.
Message Once you've saved more than 12 record for Export, you can only see the first 12 on the Export Saved Records screen. 2/22/01
Response On that screen there's a new button called Next Page. Clicking this will take you to the next 12 in your saved records set. Once you've gone to a "next page" a Previous Page button will appear, so you can go back and forth to work with your saved records.
Message I just the opportunity to verify a SUDOC number on "Eleazar" - dyn-o-mite! It was easy to enter the number (almost an impossibility in our DCIS version) and made it easy to browse the shelf list area for related documents. 2/21/01
Response Thank you! We like compliments too.
Message The font on the banner should be consistent. I think it would look better if the font within the buttons matched the font for "dartmouth college library catalog". 2/20/01
Response Thank you.
Message When exporting netlibrary catalog records and choosing full display and email as options the url is not part of the output. however full display to the screen does give the url and using marc and screen or email gives the url. I haven't tried procite or endnote to see what happens. 2/20/01
Response We have reported this problem to Innovative
Message On the search pages, the instructions say Click in the box, type the Subject and then press ENTER:
Is this something we still need to spell out? Both Netscape & IE automatically pop the cursor in the search box, and do we really want to tell people to press ENTER? On my keyboard it says RETURN. Perhaps it would be sufficient to bold the submit button so that people know that a carriage return will send the search and not activate the start over button. 2/19/01
Response This instruction has been deleted from the screens. However, it should be pointed out that the cursor appears in the search text box because of some javascript on the screen. Patrons who have turned off javascript in their browser will not see this cursor placement.
Message Is anything being done about the location "Baker Stacks"?
Shouldn't the location code bakr be mapped to "Baker/Berry Stacks"? Or are you waiting for the sublocation box to go away first? 2/15/01
Response There is a project underway to redo our location codes. One reason for that is, as you guessed, to make the Sublocation box go away. We will also be redoing many of the translations of the location codes due to a maximum character limit in the Innopac. This is a big project requiring coordination of a number of departments and changes in tables that support Innopac as well as the BRS catalog.
Message I'm writing to say that I like the expanded contents of the new banner very much. I've heard some concerns expressed about the relative visual prominence that the banner now has on the page, which may perhaps lead to making changes to the index boxes/table to balance it. The new banner has both color and 3-D qualities that give it visual prominence over the rest of the opening page. If that wasn't the intention, I wondered whether the group considered modifing the current design to remove the "shadow box" that surrounds the whole green block set. In addition, the bricks would visually recede if the color were made darker. Perhaps a font more consistent with that used in the top line (Dartmouth College Library Catalog) would balance the design better. I like the look of the current index table, and the light, sparse design used there. (The webpac looks great and I'm very excited about next Wednesday's debut.) 2/15/01
Response Thank you!
Message Is it possible to make linking entries hot-link directly to the title, rather than getting put into the index? It's very annoying when you attempt to follow a link and end up right back in the record you started with. E.g. trying to get to Saturday review and world from Saturday review/world. Or trying to get to ABA banking journal from Banking. It would be preferable to go right to the title, and it is not available (say we don't own it) be put into the index with a suitable message. Unfortunately there are a lot of links that aren't going to work properly because of initialisms (with/without periods), use of uniform titles etc. Also, it's very annoying to be put into the ISSN index if there is an ISSN present in the linking entry, but I gather someone is working on that? Lastly, when there are two linking entries combined into one statement (as in a merger or split), I think it is treated as one phrase rather than allowing you to search on either title individually. 2/15/01
Response Innovative has identified a number of hot-linking issues in their current software release and has embarked on a complete rewrite of this aspect of the system. The new code is due out 2nd quarter of this year. I hope this will address your problem. If you think I'm totally misunderstanding, please write back.
Yes, we're attempting to have the ISSN's removed from the public display and this would take care of links going into that index.
Message Pro-Quest problem? Friday and again today I tried to look at Library Technology Reports on WebPAc. I tried it both as "annonymous" and when logged in as myself. Several comments:
- while the "call number" and the url above it for the title seem identical, the "call number" url only takes me to the browse screen but I can't/couldn't link to the title.
- Then, when I found the contents page for the issue I wanted (Nov/Dec, 2000), I couldn't get to the articles. Click on the title went unanswered and eventually timed out. Click on the camera, etc. said request can't be satisfied. I haven't checked other access points to Library Technology Reports online so don't know if the problem is with ProQuest or with WebPAC.
However, when looking for our print copy--not on the shelf--I found the WebPAC display confusing. Though perhaps not fixable. It looks like we have a gap in our holdings from 1997 (last bound volume?) to "current issue." If it was "current unbound in SRR" it might be clearer, but for unbound journals shelved in the stacks, which (at B/B) circulate, the screen is confusing at this point. 2/12/01
Response
- The url call number issue has been addressed and the url that takes you to the call number browse screen will be going away shortly.
- A ProQuest problem was identified and resolved.
Message Status for non-circulating items? I realize that the system isn't set up to show a non-circulating status based on location (rabk for example) but could we fool it into doing that OR could we, using rapid update, somehow change the "-" status to something indicating non-circulating? This wouldn't be a perfect solution because status is a mutable field, but it might help patrons when requesting items. We could run clean-up review files periodically to revert any non-circulating items whose status had migrated to "-".
Just a thought. I just requested a spec coll book on cats to see what would happen, and the canned response wasn't exactly friendly. I assume that's an Inno response... 2/12/01
Response We'll be implementing a Request Rules file which will deal with this issue. We have control over the messages so we'll make them more friendly.
Message I find the keyword searching a definite loss from what we have in the BRS catalog. While typically I prefer to search Inno, any time I know a title word but not necessarily the correct title, I go to the BRS catalog. That functionality--"fin ti Kwai" for Bridge on the River Kwai--seems missing here. And the keyword screen is not only horribly confusing but rather useless for this purpose. Or is there a yet-unwritten help screen that tells me how to find "Bridge on the River Kwai" by entering "Kwai" in the title? 2/9/01
Response We're still working on customizing the Help screens for our search pages. But in fact the out of the box help for Keyword searches tells you how to do a title search in Keyword. The catch is that it's the last example on the screen, so maybe you didn't scroll far enough.
If you have specific suggestions for how to make the keyword search screen less confusing, or can tell us what is confusing about it, we'd love to hear them. Please send them to Library-WebPAC-Team (or use the on-screen suggestion box again.)
Message I tried Author: National Geographic Title: Yellowstone. I get a very odd error page via the webpac. 2/8/01
Response This is a known problem which we've reported to Innovative
Message What happened to the link to Featured Lists? 2/8/01
Response In a note distributed to library-group on February 1, we announced that the page that included the link to Featured Lists had been moved. You can access those, and other staff links, at https://inno.dartmouth.edu/screens/staff.html.
Message In View Your Record... nice simple page and easy to fill in. However, many patrons do not have a pin # and don't know how to obtain one. Could you add a link with directions of how to get that number? 2/1/01
Response I've modified the page to include some instructions for when you don't have a pin. If there are further improvements, or changes in wording that you would like to suggest, please don't hesitate to send them along.
Message I couldn't figure out how to request a selected item when it was a journal. I skipped all over the place but couldn't get my j. volume and the "request" button at the same time. Clearly it's not as straightforward as I thought! 1/27/01
Response Click the Request button and it will prompt you for the journal volume. Except when the volume isn't barcoded and then you're more or less stuck with choosing any random volume and writing the real volume number in the special instructions box.
Message I was trying the webpac version for a United nations proceedings as if I were a student. I, of course did not look at directions at bottom of screen so typed it in and did not get what I wanted. I used keyword search. 1/24/01
Response Please give us specifics on what didn't work correctly.
Message The screens are boring, can you jazz them up? (Paraphrased from various messages).
Response The Design subgroup is interested in any suggestions staff have for the new Library Catalog. Please be specific in your recommendations.
Message I'm wondering why the footer is only on the front page and not carried through the whole site. I shouldn't have to know to go back to the beginning to get to the library home page, or DCIS databases. 12/19/00
Response Thank you for your suggestion.
Message Doesn't the icon for the material seem a little too cute for Dartmouth? I also don't feel that it represents the material type correctly (in some cases). 12/15/00
Response The icons were selected solely for the purpose of illustrating the functionality. The Implementation Team has not reviewed this option yet. If we decide to implement this, the Design group will choose more pleasing (and smaller!) icons. At that time, the icons will accurately reflect the type of material described by the record.
Message I like the idea of icons for media type, if they can really be separated out into meaningful groups. When we've got online, print, and microform versions of a resource, it would be great to have a quick visual way to determine which record is for which item. 12/14/00
Response The Implementation Team is considering this option.
Message keyword search folly: 12/12/00 Your search query has been changed...
Tried: (verunglimpfung) no records found
Tried: ve** 32000 records found
Response The automatic translation of your search to a highly truncated version of the word has been turned off.