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SFX-Verde Group Home >
Minutes
5/24/2005
SFX/Verde Minutes 5/24/2005
Attendees: Millicent Gaskell, Kim Maxwell, Graham Howard, Rich
Wenger, Ellen Duranceau, Beth Siers, Jennifer Edwards, Nicole Hennig,
Tracy Gabridge (minutes)
1. Barton as an SFX source
WAG discussed what the SFX button should look like in Barton, what the
screen should say, etc. The recommendations and ideas will be tested after
version 16 of ALEPH goes live.
2. Envisioning the E-journal experience
The team took a look at the various tools available for presenting journals/e-journals
to patrons: Metalib, SFX, and ALEPH
We discussed different distinctions we may want to consider:
- How we present databases versus e-journals - do they need to be in
the same tool?
- What tools are appropriate for known item searching versus discovery
type searches for journals?
- Do we want to try to merge access of e-journals with print journals
and have users access them from a single interface?
- During the demonstrations we determined that the primary difference
between SFX and Metalib as access to e-journals is that users can use
personalization features to create/manipulate lists of journals within
Metalib, but not in SFX.
The main difference between SFX/Metalib and ALEPH is that within ALEPH
we can provide access to all formats of a journal within a single tool.
Personalization features like an e-shelf are available in ALEPH as well
as in Metalib.
The group also discussed using subject categories to describe journals.
It was generally felt that it might not be worth the
effort to assign subjects to e-journals within the SFX/Metalib context.
If, in ALEPH, it were possible to map the LC subject
headings or beginnings of call numbers to higher-level subject access
in an automated way, this might be of value to staff and
users. Then, if faceted browsing could be used, the full power of subject
browsing could be realized.
The group felt strongly that it would be a good idea to do side-by- side
usability testing of SFX and ALEPH as journal access tools to make an
informed decision about future direction on this issue. Because of the
version 16 upgrade, it was surmised that it might not be possible to do
the ALEPH work in the test environment until later in the summer or early
fall. The group felt that since we can't really implement any of our recommendations
until early 2006 at the earliest, that taking the time to do the usability
testing would be very valuable work.
3. Summing up
From the e-journal discussion it seems clear that we'd like to explore
merging access to both print and electronic formats of
journals. Also, we'd like to aim for simplicity in interface and process
for both users and staff.
At a future meeting Nicole will report on a study she heard about concerning
how to design faceted browsing interfaces.
Ellen and Nicole will reschedule the meeting with Tami to occur outside
of the SFX/Verde meetings.
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