New Catalog Wishlist

Searching

• Better Navigation: Search and Refine
  Especially the use of facets to show you subjects, authors, formats, languages, date ranges, etc., with the number of hits for each displayed.

  This could also include the ability to browse down or view keyword search results through a classification filter. (See NCSU’s use of the Library of Congress system, and the Phoenix Public Library’s BISAC system for examples.) These categories/filters could be universal option, or only appear when searching a single library.

• Keyword Index ISBNs and Other Numbers
  Staff and users should be able to search ISBNs and other standard numbers in the keyword index, rather than in a special index. The system should know how to find the right record whether ISBNs are entered with or without hyphens, with or without check digits, and in either 10 or 13 digit format.
• Spellchecking, Autocomplete and Helpful Fuzziness
  Includes “Did you mean…” spellchecking and stemming
• Relevance and Sorting (Guess What I Want)
  Use of algorithms including popularity to determine sort order
  Relevance ranking algorithm should be something we can tune at either the network or library level. For example, we might want to turn up the relative importance of having the keywords appear in a subject heading, and turn down the relevance of having the words appear near each other in the record
• Enhanced Content
  Reviews, Author Information, Excerpts
  This should be dynamic — content or links to content should appear automatically if content is available
• Amazon Features
  Search Inside the Book
  Citation Linking (Cites/Cited By)

What People Expect: Better Tools

• Easy Password Management
  Including checking the strength of a password
  Ability for users to set a prompting question and answer for retrieval of forgotten passwords
  Ability to have forgotten password sent via e-mail

• Easier Login Management
  Single sign-on with campus systems
• Streamline Requesting
  Remember User Preferences, include preferred pickup location and preferred format information
• Ability to Scope and Unscope a Record
  Link from scoped record to see all copies
  This should be dynamic — there should only be a “see all copies” link if there actually are other copies
• Contact Staff about Any Record
  Should be a link to a form which carries with it a bib number so people can report errors, ask questions about the availability of the book, etc.
• Ability to Move Among Editions
  Includes different formats, like Amazon does on the item page.
  (There are a couple of approaches to this, one of which is using software to analyze records and build FRBR keys into the bib records, the other of which is to query a database of associated ISBNs (xISBN from OCLC, user-matched ISBNs from LibraryThing.)

• Call Number Information
  Make it easy for user to virtually browse the shelves from a call number in the catalog, so they can see nearby items
  Make it easier for user to find the item on the shelf by linking to both a text and graphic version of “find it” information. (For example, “Books in the 770s (Photography) are shelved on the second floor, on the right side” and also show a map with the stack range highlighted)
• Quick Export of Call Number to Take to Shelves (with Options)
  Print out a receipt, e-mail a short citation, text to phone, etc.
• Easier Ways to Get Citations
  This includes both better exporting to citation management software, and a copy-and-paste option to display a bibliographic citation in different standard formats
• Borrowing History
  User should be able to opt in and out of borrowing history at any time, to set options for borrowing history (for example, to save books but not videos), and to remove individual titles from their borrowing history

  Users should be able to opt-in to recommendations based on borrowing history

  Users should be able to export their borrowing history in various formats, including complete lists as delimited files or other structured formats, and as badges and widgets they can use to share their reading on blogs, Facebook, etc.

• Catalog to Go
  It should be easy for both staff and users to create customized search boxes, badges, widgets, apps for Facebook, etc.

  An open API so users can access our data and create their own widgets, mash-ups, etc., as they do with Flickr, Google, etc.

• Feeds and Alerts
  There should be feeds and alerts created for search results, new material, etc. This needs to happen automatically for search results, but there should also be a menu system that a user can use to set up a feed for new books added to Gordon College in French language or French literature

Social Features

• Recommendations for Every Title
  Title records should have recommendations based on algorithms
  Users should be able to opt-in or out of seeing these
• Recommendation Just for Me
  Opt-in use of borrowing history, not just to recommend new titles when the user logs in, but also in search results.
• Ratings (Add Them, See Them, Sort by Them)
  Users should be able to add ratings and to view ratings information from other users
  Users should be able to opt out of seeing ratings information
  We should be able to associate ratings with institutions/communities…perhaps when you are scoped to the level of Merrimack College, you only want to see ratings from that institution?
• Tags
  Users should be able to add tags and to view tags from other users
  Users should be able to opt out of seeing tags
  We should be able to associate ratings with institutions/communities…perhaps when you are scoped to the level of Merrimack College, you only want to see tags from that institution?
• Reviews and Comments
  Users should be able to add reviews and view reviews from other users
  Users should be able to opt out of seeing reviews
  We should be able to associate reviews with institutions/communities…perhaps when you are scoped to the level of Merrimack College, you only want to see reviews from that institution?
• Identity and Reputation : Top Reviews, Public Profile, etc.
• Private and Shared Lists
  Users should be able to create, name and maintain an unlimited number of lists
  Users should be able to add items to their list from the catalog record
  Users should be able to add annotations to their list
  Users should be able to keep their lists private or make them public (public lists should have a persistent URL)
• Permalinks by ISBN and Social Bookmarking
  There should be easy options on the bib record screen so users can share catalog records through social bookmarking and network sites