After discussion in the UXAG, Web Services would like to solicit feedback on: 1) adding limiters for print books, eBooks and streaming video to Scout and 2) a couple of changes to the default Scout homepage.  A demo profile of EDS has been set up so that you can see what these changes would look like (note: if you are off campus, you will need to use our VPN to access this profile).

New limiters

Because the books source type includes print books, eBooks, audiobooks and other publication types, it currently has to be used with other facets in Scout to narrow a search to print materials.  E-books and video appear on the list of source types, but they are often far down that list.  Adding these three limiters to Scout will allow users to more easily search the print book, eBook and streaming video records imported into Scout from our library catalog.

All three limiters use publication types for filtering instead of source types.  For that reason, source types are not checked when the limiters are used (compare the print books limiter and the books source type in the picture below).

Scout homepage changes

1) Search options will return to being hidden by default on the Scout homepage.

2) Disciplines will be available when search options are expanded, but they will be hidden by default.  Users will have the option of expanding disciplines by clicking “show topics.”

If you have any feedback on these changes, please don’t hesitate to post a comment below. These changes can be previewed on our demo profile of EDS.