Center for Research Libraries now appears as a separate location in the Location facet of EDS. If you are just interested in results from the Center for Research Libraries, you can either check the Center for Research Libraries checkbox in the Location facet, or you can add AND LB cen* to your query and then check the Catalog Only limiter. Conversely, if you want to exclude Center for Research Libraries results from your query, you can add NOT LB cen* to your query in conjunction with the Catalog Only limiter.

One improvement we’ve been working on recently has been to get series metadata for catalog records searchable when a title search is conducted in Scout. Though EBSCO has made a number of changes to catalog searching in Scout in order to provide this functionality, Mary Alexander has identified series MARC fields and subfields that should be searched when a title search is conducted but that currently aren’t. We will continue to work with EBSCO on improving this functionality in Scout. Thank you to Barb Dahlbach for initially bringing the issue with searching series metadata in Scout to our attention.

Finally, HathiTrust links now display “Check for access options” links when no full text access is available in HathiTrust. This is just a link to Full Text Finder’s link resolver. When full text is not found, users will see links to the catalog and to the interlibrary loan form. Thank you to Vin Scalfani and Kevin Walker for bringing this issue to our attention.

Hi folks – when you use our website, and navigate through its structure, the below list of Jakob Nielsen’s 10 essential characteristics of a website are what we are trying to represent and replicate on the university library’s website, and  – to the extent that we can – replicated in all of our web properties. They absolutely are relevant and essential rules for building a great website.

Do the 10 Usability Heuristics Still Hold Up Over Two Decades Later?

All EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) results should now display the database they originated from.

At the end of 2013, a number of databases (Academic Search products notable among them) were merged into the central EDS index. When a result in EDS originated from this central index, the database name would not display in that result’s metadata.

EBSCO’s stated reason for doing this was to improve performance and simplify de-duplication. This change didn’t prove to be popular, though, and in response to customer feedback, EBSCO has found a way to display all database names without compromising performance.

Occasionally, the metadata that will now display in the Database or Content Provider field may refer to a potentially unfamiliar resource — specifically, the Complementary Index, Supplementary Index or eBook Index. These indices are not accessible outside of EDS / Scout. EBSCO has a support article explaining what each of these indices includes. (Note: You will not see the Academic Search Index or Business Source Index listed in that link, since we pay for Academic Search Premier and Business Source Complete.)

If you have questions about this change, please don’t hesitate to comment below or to email me directly. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll pass the question along to EBSCO support.

Based on discussion in the UXAG, we have decided to include a Search Scout Only checkbox below the OneSearch search bar.  If the checkbox is checked, the user will be taken straight to the Scout results page for their query.  We will be closely tracking how this checkbox affects OneSearch use.

If you have any feedback on this checkbox, please don’t hesitate to post a comment below!

 

 

The following interface changes to Scout are proposed:

Note: If you are interested in previewing these changes, an EDS profile has been set up for that purpose.

1. Discipline-limited searching will display in the search options section.  Discipline-limited searching allows users to easily narrow their search by broad subject areas. This EBSCO support article provides some additional detail on how disciplines work in EBSCO Discovery Service.     
2. Scout will default to displaying 20 results per page. As some students do not leave the first page of results, we hope that increasing the number of results per page will expose them to a greater number of resources. Increasing the number of results per page should also make paging through results less burdensome.
3. A few months ago, EBSCO introduced an Associated Press news “carousel” that appears when a query matches videos in the Associated Press video library.By default, this carousel displays close to the top of the results page, and also displays regardless of the Source Type(s) the user has selected. Going forward, the AP news carousel will display at the bottom of the first page, and only for appropriate Source Type facets (i.e., All, News or Video).
4. About a month ago, EBSCO changed Search Options to display by default with our Basic Search.  We have decided to restore the Search Options to being hidden by default.  The visibility of search options can still be toggled on and off by clicking “Search Options” beneath the search bar.   Update: Based on feedback we’ve received, this change has been removed from what will be added to Scout on the 28th.  Thank you to those who took the time to provide their feedback!  

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 added to the live version of Scout the afternoon of Wednesday, October 28th. Feedback on any other changes is also appreciated.

Q: What exactly IS the OneSearch?

‘OneSearch‘ is a comprehensive, UA-Libraries created, owned and maintained search tool that accesses all of the University Libraries’ resources using our discovery tools, Full-text article resources, the Libraries’ catalog, electronic resource, the library website, FAQs and research guides as sources.

• Searches almost every single resource available to the University Libraries including: Scout, our Database list, LibGuides, LibAnswers (the Library F.A.Q.), our Google API account, a curated list of the top  pages with suggested URLs, library subject specialists, the Library’s catalog, our electronic resources, the Music Library’s video database, and Acumen.
• Provides a ‘Bento-Box’ style array of search results, divided by item type.
• Allows the user to click through to a more comprehensive list of results within the native interface of the data-source.
• Provides immediate and direct answers to almost any natural language search concerning using the library or its resources.

Q: Can you break the tool down, section-by-section? (see the below figure)

OneSearch is divided into distinct sections – much like a Bento Box, hence the terminology – of the same name – that is used to describe these types of search interfaces, as found in the literature.

Section 1: The OneSearch bar – use this bar much like a google search bar. You may type any sort of query to find any item you need, or any type of information you seek about the library or its resources (such as hours, FAQ queries like “where is there a quiet place to study,” or full-text searches of our libguides / research guides.).

Additionally, the search bar will provide auto-completion of words and terms and – more importantly – give suggestions for pages or resources if what you type matches a hand-curated (and constantly updated) list of commonly sought resources and pages.

Section 2: this is the Nav bar of the OneSearch results page. Clicking on a navigation item will simply move the window to the area, staying within your search. Clicking an item in the nav bar does NOT push you off of the website, or force you to leave the page.

Section 3: These are individual onesearch sections. When you perform a onesearch, your results are divided into 9 separate sections, based on item ‘type,’ and are explained below:

• Articles (full-text Journal articles, searches Scout)
• Books (Book titles, searches Scout and the Catalog)
• Journal Titles (Individual Journals and collections, searches Scout and Catalog)
• Website (Uses Google API to perform very targeted, FT-search of library website pages and sections)
• FAQ (Uses Google API to search our FAQ repository – *Note* the FAQ contains a great deal of knowledge about how to do things in the various libraries, where things are, and and how to find and use various services. You may use keywords or complete questions or sentences. The results also appear as suggested terms when typing into the search bar.)
• Research Guides (Uses Google API to search our Research guides. These contain ALL support materials for both specific subjects as well as individual classes – if you are looking for help or suggestions on particular classes or subjects, or assignments, this is the place to look/start).
• Database Titles (Uses a custom SQL databases
• Acumen (Special Collections Archival Digital Image Repository)
• Other Items (media items, videos, Dvds, Cd-Roms, musical scores, etc.)

Q: What is the purpose of the ‘more’ link?

Section 4: More items – the OneSearch is generally intended to expose the user to the full breadth of resources available at UA libraries, but in a very limited sense, generally keeping results to the to three search items as indicated by the sources (that is, when OneSearch queries the Catalog for book titles, it is the catalog that determines and sorts the top choices, or Scout, or Google and so on.).

Since some users will want to see more results than what is provided, the ‘more’ link provides an avenue into the original source of those items, and – if clicked – will open a new window into the original resources with all available search results.

 

On Augst 12th, The University of Alabama Libraries will be launching a new website that focuses on the user experience, ease-of-use, and comprehensive access to resources.

Q: Where has everything gone?

A: Nowhere and everywhere. While all of our resource pages have been redesigned, many still share the same URL paths, (or similar) such as databases, Scout, etc. Additionally, all of our most requested or used pages are accessible via the large, easy-to-use drop down mega menus (please see video). If there is an area or resource that you need, it is likely available via the drop down, the OneSearch, or from the footer. There is also a hierarchical site map available which links to every page available on the website.

Resources that were previously a bit hidden away on the individual library pages have been moved into subject specific libguides, or into comprehensive unified services pages for functional, action-based areas such as printing, or equipment, etc.

Q: Where is the Scout Search Box? How do I search for things?

A: The Scout Search Box, along with all of the others, has been replaced by ‘OneSearch‘ – a comprehensive search tool that:

• Searches almost every single resource available to the University Libraries including: Scout, our Database list, LibGuides, LibAnswers (the Library F.A.Q.), our Google API account, a curated list of the top  pages with suggested URLs, library subject specialists, the Library’s catalog, our electronic resources, the Music Library’s video database, and Acumen.
• Provides a ‘Bento-Box’ style array of search results, divided by item type.
• Allows the user to click through to a more comprehensive list of results within the native interface of the data-source.
• Provides immediate and direct answers to almost any natural language search concerning using the library or its resources.

Q: Hey, it looks very different.

A: That is correct, the new site was designed using the Responsive Design methodology, which is a users-with-disabilities and mobile-device friendly method  of site design – using various technologies, the website adapts to the device or browser on which it is observed.

Additionally, the graphic design style and UX were dramatically updated to match current standards and expectations.

We look forward to hearing your comments as we strive to make The University of Alabama Libraries web presence a more usable and attractive destination.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.