Scout additions

There are three different items related to Scout that we wanted to take the opportunity to go into some detail about.

Integrated search

We have replaced our integrated search connector for IBISWorld with ABI/INFORM Complete. Integrated search is a way for Scout/EBSCO Discovery Service to retrieve results for resources that it doesn’t have permission to index directly. We have four integrated search connectors available to us that can be used to search this kind of resource. Credit goes to Karen Chapman for alerting us that IBISWorld is now indexed directly by EBSCO, which gave us the opportunity to use the integrated search connector we used for IBISWorld to search another resource. Thank you to Jennifer McClure, Barbara Dahlbach and Karen Chapman for their help in finding a suitable replacement for IBISWorld.

Custom links

We’ve identified instances where additional Custom Links can be added to Scout and we’re in the process of adding them in. Custom Links are links (typically full text) that direct to the publisher’s website instead of to EBSCO’s servers.

CustomLinkWithLinkResolver

 

In the above picture, “view this record from Manuscriptorium” is the custom link.

Because custom links are typically more reliable than using the link resolver (labelled “Check for Full Text”), we want to include them where they’re available. We’ll update everyone on specific Custom Links as they’re added.

Interface changes

We’d also like to solicit feedback on interface tweaks to Scout.  Screenshots of these interfaces changes can be seen below.  These changes can also be seen by accessing the demonstration version of Scout.  If you are off-campus, you can make use of our VPN to access the demonstration version.

As a byproduct of the discussion to make changes to integrated search, we’ve added some additional links to the Extended Search section.

extendedSearchNew

The new resources linked are Gender Watch, Bibliography of Asian Studies, Ethnic NewsWatch and Sociological Abstracts.

The DPLA widget also has been added to Scout on the right-hand side.

dplawidget

The DPLA is a wonderful resource that we are excited to be able to feature in some way, even if it has quite a bit of competition for screen real estate. Though the widget is fairly far down the screen on the right-hand side, including it will give users a chance to discover DPLA’s rich collections that would not otherwise have thought to search it. Thanks go to Jennifer McClure for suggesting that we add this widget.

If you have any feedback on the above interface changes, please don’t hesitate to post a comment below.  In the absence of any concerns about these changes, they will be reflected on the live version of Scout the morning of Friday, July 29th.  Feedback on any other changes is also appreciated.

Beta Comments, Changes and Release Date

Thanks everyone for the beta comments, many were useful, some were not, and others we can’t – for a variety of reasons – take any action on for the moment. That being said, this site is designed for the users, so any and all user criticisms, pointers and comments are appreciated.

Things are moving smoothly towards a release for the fall semester. Our launch date is set for August 12th, about 1 week prior to the beginning of fall classes, but we hope to possibly release sooner.

Additionally, we are pushing builds of changes (based on internal schedules, task lists, and external comments) to the beta server, and the first push will be Friday, July 10th. We hope to push at least one more ‘semi-finished’ build out to the beta server for public consumption by all a week or so prior to the launch date.