ORCA Catalog Design Task Force (CDTF)
Minutes from Feb. 11, 2003
In
attendance: Nancy Hoover (Marylhurst),
Janet Crum (OHSU), Andrea Peterson (WWU), Lori Robare (UO), Pam Mofjeld (Orca
staff), Diana Brooking (UW)
staff notes (answers to questions) added in green
Part 1-Before Lunch
Our
deadline to complete our tasks is April 1, 2003 (no joke!) We will need to include sample web pages in
our report. We need to discuss the look
and feel of the web interface including color scheme, help pages for both top
level screens and individual search pages, buttons and browse screens.
What
we don't have yet is the logo. It may
possibly be an Orca and could be a Native American design in red, white and
black like Orbis. We would like to
recommend that the artist work in greens and blues which are the colors we have
picked for the Orca catalog. We want the first screen to have a white
background with colored buttons. We
like the blue and green of Cascade.
This is our recommendation but the colors can be changed later if needed
to match the logo.
We
want the search buttons to be green and the help buttons to be a more subdued,
or more slate blue than the current colors used in Cascade.
We
may have to do 2 markups depending on the logo but this is our layout for the
first screen: (Imagine there are boxes
around the text to represent the buttons)
|
TITLE |
KEYWORD |
||
|
AUTHOR |
SUBJECT |
||
|
OTHER |
|||
|
JOURNALS ONLY |
|||
|
HELP |
ABOUT ORCA |
ORCA MEMBERS |
|
|
ORCA is a library..... |
|||
|
Room for a news flash |
|||
|
(do we need the Meyer Memorial Trust
note here still?) |
|||
SEARCH SCREENS:
We
want pull down menu options for author, title, subject and keyword and a search
widgit to limit to scopes. We like the
buttons of the Cascade search screens that offer options to go to other
seaches. We should keep the buttons
except the 2 scope buttons which say "Journals only" and "Search
Entire Collection". It should be a
single row of buttons with the Start Over button on the right. Other options included radio buttons or the
buttons down the side. We can get a
small logo above the top buttons. One
suggestion was to use the old U of O buttons where only the left side border
and the underline were visible (like the letter L). The lines were dark with a white background. [Lori is going to see if this web design is
available for us to copy?] We like the
idea of the buttons but we want them lightened up a bit so they don't dominate
the screen.
Clicking
on the Subject button will bring up a choice of LC or MESH buttons. Have decisions been made about what indexes
we will have? Is this part of our
charge? Cascade has no classification # index and Orbis does. Will Orca have one? (yes, unless
the group recommends not having one. We have arranged for Orca to include all
indexes currently used by Orbis, Cascade, and the members’ local catalogs) Orbis has genre, Cascade does but it is not
public. Could it go into other
searches? Other subjects are under
other searches. Cascade has LC, MESH,
and other subjects are in keyword.
Orbis has no author/title index.
Should we ask III to create a genre index now while we are negotiating this
merger? (already taken care of; we have arranged
for Orca to include all indexes currently used by Orbis, Cascade, and the
members’ local catalogs)
We
would have an other seaches screen so if you click on subject
from the first screen you get a choice of LC or MESH and under those 2 buttons
would be a link with this wording: For
other subjects like children, genre, etc. (The words "other subjects"
would be a hot link).
Under
Other Searches in Orbis, the choices are class #, govdocs, ddc, other #'s and
other subject headings. In Cascade,
Other Seaches are govdocs, issn/isbn and au/ti.
We
want to keep the text like Orbis and keep other subjects here and on the
secondary search page where subject (other) can be in the search widgit.
Cascading
Style Sheets:
This
certainly makes sense but we will leave the specifics to John and Nancy.
Do
we need the telnet option as a prominent button any more? Was this more of a staff pleaser than
publicly used? Cascade had a tiny 1
pixel button for Lynx on the upper left of the first screen (see if you can
find it). (Access
to text-based catalog should still be available. CDTF may want to suggest using a term other than “telnet”. See additional comments below, under Action
Items (2.))
We
want our help screens to be like UW help screens but instead of listing our
each topic to group them under larger subjects with hot links like Printing,
Languages and Scripts, Other and then listing individual help advice under
broader topics.
Sincerely
submitted, Nancy Hoover, Marylhurst University
Part 2-After Lunch
AVS
keyword search screen look
and feel
After
comparing AVS search screens from both ORBIS and Cascade member libraries, CDTF
decided to:
|
Location
|
Material Type |
|
|
Search
and Sort |
Publisher |
|
o
offer Date as the
default value for Search and Sort pull-down menu, then Alphabetical, then
Relevance
o
use WWU's tabular
layout for the Keyword search examples and explanations, again adjusting for
ORCA color scheme (text for this part will be worked on as an action item)
Logo and graphics
CDTF
would like to make recommendations about the color scheme and shape of the logo
(i.e., banner) to John and Nancy. CDTF reiterated the difficulty of planning
the look and feel of the public catalog without knowing anything yet about the
logo or its colors.
Browse screens look and feel
CDTF
would like smaller buttons with smaller text, on 2 lines if necessary, again
adjusting to the ORCA color scheme (probably green). This look (similar to
current ORBIS buttons) would make better use of screen space.
Wording
for browse screen buttons on both ORBIS and Cascade is very similar. In the
places where they differ, CDTF chose "Keyword" (rather than Word
Search, will reflect new AVS) and "Export/Email" (rather than
"Export").
There
will be the addition of a new pull-down for scopes to ORCA browse screens. That
was OK with everyone, and CDTF recommends no other changes to browse screens.
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading
Style Sheets could help to reduce web page maintenance and provide a more
consistent look. The only disadvantage is that older browsers don't support it.
CDTF suggests that Nancy and John should consider using Cascading Style Sheets.
(We have already discussed this technique for
maintaining public and staff web page information; will explore feasibility for
catalog as well, although all “help” or “information” pages can be based on a
standard template.)
Telnet issues
CDTF
liked the current Cascade use of a single pixel link to the telnet version.
This link shows only to Lynx and other non-graphic screen readers. CDTF will
ask John and Nancy if we need a more visible link to telnet version.
Search page examples and help
The
individual index search pages' help will be divided up as action items for
reviewing and possibly rewriting the text.
Main Help page look
CDTF
decided that the main Help page should be organized in more of an outline form
by broad topics (see UW Libraries catalog main Help page as example). CDTF felt
that it is not responsible for rewriting all the text that may be on these
various help pages.
Serials scope
Serials
scope is based on bib lvl = s. However, CDTF would like to call this
"Journals Only" in the public catalog.
The main search screen for serials scope:
|
DOES
NOT FIND ARTICLES |
|||
|
Search
Entire Collection |
|||
|
Title
|
Keyword |
||
|
Author
|
Subjects |
||
|
Other
Searches |
|||
|
Help |
About
ORCA |
ORCA
Members |
|
CDTF
decided the background color that would be on all pages associated with serials
scope would be light green (similar to Cascade background color on serials
scope). This helps both users and staff more easily identify that the scope has
changed.
The
same include file for the search screens should be used on both serial and
entire collection scopes. That is,
|
Title |
Keyword
|
Author
|
Subjects
|
Other
Searches |
|
Start
Over |
||||
It
was agreed that the Start Over button in serials scope should retain the scope,
that is, once a user is in the serials scope clicking Start Over would bring
them back to the main serials scope search screen, where the top button would
offer "Search Entire Collection" as an exit from the scope.
INN-Reach Rel. 2002 Phase 2 enhancements
Holdings
display. CDTF discussed the
enhancements for improved holdings display. There was a lot of uncertainty
about exactly how the new display works and the choices that we may or may not
have. It was decided we need to get more information from Innovative before
deciding anything.
Link
to library holdings. CDTF decided
it would prefer to keep the wording "X ORCA libraries have this item"
on the main bibliographic record page display. It is not clear if we change
that link to a button if we can have variable text.
Request
item link (or button). It was also
decided that if the first link is not a button, the second link ("Request
this item") should also not be a button.
Request
screen, patron verification. CDTF saw no
problem with the wording "With which institution are you affiliated?"
and we recommend no changes to that text.
AVS keyword indexing
Janet
Crum distributed helpful handouts summarizing ORBIS old keyword indexing and
Cascade AVS indexing profiles. CDTF will use Cascade AVS indexing profile as a
starting point, review all the fields indexed and share comments over email
after this meeting.
CDTF
did decide that a failed AVS keyword search should degrade to Boolean operater
"and" but NOT to "or".
Action items
1.
Review AVS indexing profile (everyone will work on this)
2.
Ask John and Nancy (Janet Crum and Pam Mofjeld will work on this part)
3.
Research details about INN-Reach Rel. 2002 phase 2 enhancements (Diana will
work on this)
4.
Draft main scope search screens help text (Nancy Hoover will work on this)
5.
Draft journal scope search screens help text (Lori will work on this)
6.
Draft main help screen text (Janet Chisman will work on this, Pam will let her
know)
7.
Create mock-ups of the web pages (Janet Crum, her web manager, and Andrea will
work on this)
We
will use the CDTF listserv to present results of our action items to each other
so we can review them before our next meeting in March.