Planned Maintenance on Sunday, April 12, 2009 to the Web Catalog to Improve
Search Results
Due to maintenance starting in the early morning, Sunday, April 12, through Sunday night, search results may be inaccurate. It will be difficult to find items in the Web catalog during this time. Placing holds, renewals and holdings
information will all function as normal. The Johnson County and Olathe Public Library will be closed all day Sunday, April 12 for the Easter holiday. When we reopen on Monday, please don't hesitate to contact the
Olathe Public
Library or the Johnson
County Library for assistance. Our apologies for any inconvenience.
This maintenance is part of a reindexing project that should provide some subtle improvements to searching.
Searching
A few of the benefits to searching include: - Improved searching for titles
The title search option will now find alternate titles (MARC field 246) -- often used for different spelling of a title; different cover title or spine title, and for foreign language items. Some examples of alternate titles that are commonly searched for are I love gymnastics and No fear Shakespeare. - Periodicals with title changes (like periodicals often do) will be easier to locate with the title search or the periodical title search. Reindexing will help with previous title search or titles that they are changed to.
- When a city name is entered as a words or phrase search, results with the city name as the publication location will no longer be retrieved. Please note that the best way to find travel books is still to search for the location name and the term “guidebooks” or “travel.”
- Obsolete MARC fields will no longer be searchable; this should cut down on "noise" in search results.
Default Sort of Results
After this reindexing project, on a monthly basis, the records in the catalog will resort to date of publication (instead of date added or last changed).
The Catalog Record Tab in the Web Catalog
Important MARC fields have been added to the display on the "catalog record" tab, providing patrons with additional clues about why a record was retrieved based on their search terms.
Improved Authority Control
Part of this project is also to polish the subject and name headings for all records in the catalog. After reindexing, records with names and subjects that don't conform to proper headings can be identified and updated by catalogers; improving the predictability and precision of searches.
Relevance?
Tweaking the indexing will be able to improve search results only slightly because our current Web catalog allows us no control over the relevance ranking of search results. The indexing improvements may seem subtle, but are in the realm of what we can control with our current system.
Web Catalog Upgrade
To better serve you, the Library is currently in the process of upgrading the Web catalog. Some services will be temporarily unavailable. Thanks for your patience as we upgrade our systems.
What is unavailable during the upgrade?
- The Web catalog will be available, but the holdings may be inaccurate. We suggest you call first to determine if the items you want are available.
- No access to My Account including placing holds and renewing materials.
- No fines will be charged for days when My Account is unavailable.
- If you changed your library card number or PIN in the last week, you may not be able to access databases from home, access downloadable audiobooks, or make online interlibrary loan requests. For assistance, contact library staff.
- If you are coming into the library, please bring your library card to check out materials.
Some of the new features available will include:
- Less clicks to renew materials and review current checkouts and holds.
- A new spell check will make searching easier.
Questions? Contact Olathe Public
Library or Johnson County
Library.
Update Monday, March 23, 2008: Maintenance to the Web Catalog
Completed
Thank you for your patience during the recent maintenance period. The
maintenance was completed successfully and searching is again working
correctly.
Update Thursday, March 20, 2008: Maintenance to the Web Catalog and
Search Results
Due to maintenance Friday night, March 21, through Sunday night, March
23, search results may be inaccurate. Placing holds, renewals and holdings
information should all function as normal during this time. On Saturday,
staff will be happy to help you find items. Don't hesitate to contact the
Olathe Public
Library or the Johnson
County Library for assistance. Our apologies for any inconvenience.
Update Wednesday, March 19, 2008: Changes to the Library Catalog
Several improvements have been made to the navigational bar:
- New link to Power Search
- Clarified the link to the Basic Search
- Added a link to "suggest for
purchase"
- Removed links to "other libraries"
- Merged the contact us selections with a new help section
A new Help
section has been added for those common questions on the Web
catalog.
The list of recommended
reading award books has been updated. It now includes several lists
that patrons have requested.
Update Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007: Library Catalog Maintenance
Update
Thank you for your patience during the recent Library catalog
maintenance. The web catalog is available as of this morning.
If
you have any questions or comments about the library
catalog, please contact Olathe Public
Library or Johnson County
Library. |