Survey: SFX Prototype Testing

Author:
Responses Received: 104

 

Was it clear/obvious how to link to various services offered by SFX (please explain)?

no- only because the phrase SFX was included in the instructions.
The UCLink is fine.
Yes. The use of the SFX icon helps. However, the SFX icon should be used uniformly regardless of the vendor or database.
Yes, very clear.
Yes. Actually, I found the SFX button much easier to figure out that the UCLinks link on the CSA test.
yes and no. The SFX appeared but I was also "attracted" to the link to "View abstract and retrieval choices"
No. the first message I received was " The full text is offered by project Muse." When I clicked on Project Muse I received an error.
No. I received an error from something that said "projcet muse" and when I linked to the MELVYL Cat PE file it tells me that my campus owns the title electronically. I thought SFX was suppose to link to those titles?
I tried to link to a citation from SCIENCE. The highwire link gave me an error on loading the page. The MELVYL PE file took me to 6 records only one of which was SCIENCE magazine. This will not be clear to the patrons.
yes
The SFX icon was very placed in a good place on the screen My question is no one knows what SFX means. "Link Out" (in Medline) is a little more of a obvious clue as to why someone might want to click it! I hope there's talk of making a more intuitive or user-friendly name on the lines of "Request" "Update" "Print" or "Mail" The "does your campus own this" link worked fine. Success story, mostly: I searched Rodent Malaria Mark Priming with recombinant influenza virus followed by administration of recombinant vaccinia virus induces CD8+ T-cell-mediated protective immunity against malaria. Shengqiang Li, Mauricio Rodrigues, Dolores Rodriguez, Juan Ramon Rodriguez, Mariano Esteban, Peter Palese, Ruth S. Nussenzweig, Fidel Zavala. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States June 1, 1993 v90 n11 p5214(5) The Highwire link came through absolutely beautifully to the article The JSTOR dumped me into the top journal level. After many clicks (Again, 199 is annoying. I'd forgotten if it was 1999, in which case it might not be in JSTOR--luckily it's 1993.Even though I could key off of the volume number, I like the security of year + volume. It took awhile to get there and some time to load, but the article is there. See if your campus has this worked OK. I just realized that the default is to abbreviations only of all libraries. That's OK, I guess, since I hope that primary Gale users are smart enough to click on UCR or All [sometimes they think "all" means that we all have it, not show me who of all the libraries has it...)
I had to guess that clicking on SFX would give me the full text of the article.
Yes, I found the SFX button to be very clear, but then I came with knowledge and expectations. I knew what SFX was supposed to do (have seen demos and spoken with staff at the Ex Libris booth at ALA).
yes
No. Nothing about the SFX link button indicates that it takes you (eventually) to the full text. The help screen didn't cover the SFX information either.
No. Students & users will not know what SFX means. Can't a self-explanatory symbol be used, such as "FULLTEXT"? or "OPTIONS" or "ACCESS"? Also confusing under citation where it says "View abstract and retrieval choices"--you expect to see access to fulltext there, especially since you don't know what "SFX" means. I suggest that when you do click on SFX, instead of saying "Link to Full Text from Project Muse," just say "Link to Full Text (Project Muse)." Students don't know what Project Muse is, and it might be confusing.
Not obvious. SFX logo doesn't idicate what it does (or even clickable). In CSA the icon was "UCI links" which seemed clearer.
Well I knew to click on SFX, but it would not be clear to a new user what SFX means or provides. I am library staff, in ILL and Document Delivery.
Yes, I clicked on the SFX button.
Yes, it was clear.
Although it wasn't intuitively clear, I did know to click on the SFX logo from the citation in Gale. I observed that many people (including myself) did not realize that one had to click on the S logo on the next window that popped up in order to activitate the SFK links. I don't know how Request works; I was only testing the linking function. When I poked around in Request, I couldn't see what happened to the journal citation so I wasn't sure whether that information was transferred to the system.
It was not clear why to click on SFX in the first place. There was no indication of what kind of infomraiton I would get (fulltext, holdings, TOC,etc). Once I clicked on SFX it was clear that I could check if my library owns the journal
Patrons will not know what "SFX" icon means. Can we use UC Links or same icon used in other databases?
Yes, very clear and very quick anf easy. If you follow the links you are brought directly to the online article (PDF file).
SFX is not intuitive - except for the initiated :-) UC Links a la CSA is more intuitive.
Yes
Yes/no: the 'abstract and retrieval choices' link was clear, but the SFX logo says nothing to the uninformed user. I knew what it was because I was looking for it. I thought it was very convenient to link directly to the article text in Human Rights Quarterly, rather than having to browse the journal as in the CSA test.
Navigation is much more clearer and graphically pleasing in Gale than it was in CSA. Choices are more well-defined.
Yes. Linking to the full text was ok. I did not have an occasion on this search to link to PE for a journal not available in full text.
Very simple, with instructions
The SFX logo/icon on the results page did not seem like an obvious link particularly within the context of other links like "View text with graphics..." or "2 full pages PDF". My eye wanted to ignore the icon altogether.
The SFX button is clear, but I'm not sure most users will know what it means without some education--it's not obvious why you would click on it. Could there be a pop-up box when you put your cursor on SFX that says something about checking UCLinks or UC holdings?
yes, easily seen 'different look' sfx graphic; couldn't miss it, I like it!
I wasn't sure where to click after the gold and blue SFX box popped up. Hyperlinks are not visible in the middle section. To me, the icon on the left just looks like a bullet since my cursor doesn't change shape when I hover.
The working of Full text and links are provided along with the citations retrieved. So, it's obvious if full text is available. In the future, CDL might offer services beyond current services, links to full texts, local holding information and request, via SFX. However, currently CDL only offers those three services mentioned above. If the ciation has full text links, SFX is redundant and is unnecessarily provided.
better than CSA. But "full text and retrieval choices" (or whatever that was) doesn't exactly flow trippingly off the tongue, nor is it clear what the heck that means. Nor did I get a choice when I clicked on it. Better than CSA, but still a little puzzling
Yes, the SFX button was obvious although the services offered might not be.
Once I got to the SFX window, the choices were clearly described. It will be better when a user can click on highlighted words such as "Melvyl catalog" (or perhaps anywhere in the text), not just on the "S" button.
no. I don't think having a link that says SFX is meaningful to patrons
No. It wasn't obvious that SFX would have the full text, the holdings for UCSC, or the request feature.
Introduction page was clear
yes
I know what sfx is, but students may not. UC-Links is a better button since it is in other databases
Yes
Yes, interface seemed fairly intuitive.
No. I was looking for the UC e links link and it was not there. I finally figured out I was supposed to click on the SFX button. I could not however, figure out how to request more than one item at a time. I marked four items on the search yet when I clicked on the SFX link it was only for one item. I tried viewing only marked items and I got a box for Browser print and Email delivery. There should be a box here for Request so you don't have to go back and forth from the list to the SFX link for each request.
It took a minute to figure out what happens after submitting a search because results did display in my browser windo. I had to navigate down screen to see that a view button had been created. I didn't know what a "refereed" publication was, but read through the help screen. Now I know. The SFX button is clear. It would be nice if there was a consistent link across different databases, either SFX, or UC-eLinks.
Pretty much, though I've used SFX (UC-elinks) before. It would be better to check on this with a student who hasn't used it before, but maybe you're already doing that.
Yes
no- only because the phrase SFX was included in the instructions.
The UCLink is fine.
Yes. The use of the SFX icon helps. However, the SFX icon should be used uniformly regardless of the vendor or database.
Yes, very clear.
Yes. Actually, I found the SFX button much easier to figure out that the UCLinks link on the CSA test.
yes and no. The SFX appeared but I was also "attracted" to the link to "View abstract and retrieval choices"
No. the first message I received was " The full text is offered by project Muse." When I clicked on Project Muse I received an error.
No. I received an error from something that said "projcet muse" and when I linked to the MELVYL Cat PE file it tells me that my campus owns the title electronically. I thought SFX was suppose to link to those titles?
I tried to link to a citation from SCIENCE. The highwire link gave me an error on loading the page. The MELVYL PE file took me to 6 records only one of which was SCIENCE magazine. This will not be clear to the patrons.
yes
The SFX icon was very placed in a good place on the screen My question is no one knows what SFX means. "Link Out" (in Medline) is a little more of a obvious clue as to why someone might want to click it! I hope there's talk of making a more intuitive or user-friendly name on the lines of "Request" "Update" "Print" or "Mail" The "does your campus own this" link worked fine. Success story, mostly: I searched Rodent Malaria Mark Priming with recombinant influenza virus followed by administration of recombinant vaccinia virus induces CD8+ T-cell-mediated protective immunity against malaria. Shengqiang Li, Mauricio Rodrigues, Dolores Rodriguez, Juan Ramon Rodriguez, Mariano Esteban, Peter Palese, Ruth S. Nussenzweig, Fidel Zavala. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States June 1, 1993 v90 n11 p5214(5) The Highwire link came through absolutely beautifully to the article The JSTOR dumped me into the top journal level. After many clicks (Again, 199 is annoying. I'd forgotten if it was 1999, in which case it might not be in JSTOR--luckily it's 1993.Even though I could key off of the volume number, I like the security of year + volume. It took awhile to get there and some time to load, but the article is there. See if your campus has this worked OK. I just realized that the default is to abbreviations only of all libraries. That's OK, I guess, since I hope that primary Gale users are smart enough to click on UCR or All [sometimes they think "all" means that we all have it, not show me who of all the libraries has it...)
I had to guess that clicking on SFX would give me the full text of the article.
Yes, I found the SFX button to be very clear, but then I came with knowledge and expectations. I knew what SFX was supposed to do (have seen demos and spoken with staff at the Ex Libris booth at ALA).
yes
No. Nothing about the SFX link button indicates that it takes you (eventually) to the full text. The help screen didn't cover the SFX information either.
No. Students & users will not know what SFX means. Can't a self-explanatory symbol be used, such as "FULLTEXT"? or "OPTIONS" or "ACCESS"? Also confusing under citation where it says "View abstract and retrieval choices"--you expect to see access to fulltext there, especially since you don't know what "SFX" means. I suggest that when you do click on SFX, instead of saying "Link to Full Text from Project Muse," just say "Link to Full Text (Project Muse)." Students don't know what Project Muse is, and it might be confusing.
Not obvious. SFX logo doesn't idicate what it does (or even clickable). In CSA the icon was "UCI links" which seemed clearer.
Well I knew to click on SFX, but it would not be clear to a new user what SFX means or provides. I am library staff, in ILL and Document Delivery.
Yes, I clicked on the SFX button.
Yes, it was clear.
Although it wasn't intuitively clear, I did know to click on the SFX logo from the citation in Gale. I observed that many people (including myself) did not realize that one had to click on the S logo on the next window that popped up in order to activitate the SFK links. I don't know how Request works; I was only testing the linking function. When I poked around in Request, I couldn't see what happened to the journal citation so I wasn't sure whether that information was transferred to the system.
It was not clear why to click on SFX in the first place. There was no indication of what kind of infomraiton I would get (fulltext, holdings, TOC,etc). Once I clicked on SFX it was clear that I could check if my library owns the journal
Patrons will not know what "SFX" icon means. Can we use UC Links or same icon used in other databases?
Yes, very clear and very quick anf easy. If you follow the links you are brought directly to the online article (PDF file).
SFX is not intuitive - except for the initiated :-) UC Links a la CSA is more intuitive.
Yes
Yes/no: the 'abstract and retrieval choices' link was clear, but the SFX logo says nothing to the uninformed user. I knew what it was because I was looking for it. I thought it was very convenient to link directly to the article text in Human Rights Quarterly, rather than having to browse the journal as in the CSA test.
Navigation is much more clearer and graphically pleasing in Gale than it was in CSA. Choices are more well-defined.
Yes. Linking to the full text was ok. I did not have an occasion on this search to link to PE for a journal not available in full text.
Very simple, with instructions
The SFX logo/icon on the results page did not seem like an obvious link particularly within the context of other links like "View text with graphics..." or "2 full pages PDF". My eye wanted to ignore the icon altogether.
The SFX button is clear, but I'm not sure most users will know what it means without some education--it's not obvious why you would click on it. Could there be a pop-up box when you put your cursor on SFX that says something about checking UCLinks or UC holdings?
yes, easily seen 'different look' sfx graphic; couldn't miss it, I like it!
I wasn't sure where to click after the gold and blue SFX box popped up. Hyperlinks are not visible in the middle section. To me, the icon on the left just looks like a bullet since my cursor doesn't change shape when I hover.
The working of Full text and links are provided along with the citations retrieved. So, it's obvious if full text is available. In the future, CDL might offer services beyond current services, links to full texts, local holding information and request, via SFX. However, currently CDL only offers those three services mentioned above. If the ciation has full text links, SFX is redundant and is unnecessarily provided.
better than CSA. But "full text and retrieval choices" (or whatever that was) doesn't exactly flow trippingly off the tongue, nor is it clear what the heck that means. Nor did I get a choice when I clicked on it. Better than CSA, but still a little puzzling
Yes, the SFX button was obvious although the services offered might not be.
Once I got to the SFX window, the choices were clearly described. It will be better when a user can click on highlighted words such as "Melvyl catalog" (or perhaps anywhere in the text), not just on the "S" button.
no. I don't think having a link that says SFX is meaningful to patrons
No. It wasn't obvious that SFX would have the full text, the holdings for UCSC, or the request feature.
Introduction page was clear
yes
I know what sfx is, but students may not. UC-Links is a better button since it is in other databases
Yes
Yes, interface seemed fairly intuitive.
No. I was looking for the UC e links link and it was not there. I finally figured out I was supposed to click on the SFX button. I could not however, figure out how to request more than one item at a time. I marked four items on the search yet when I clicked on the SFX link it was only for one item. I tried viewing only marked items and I got a box for Browser print and Email delivery. There should be a box here for Request so you don't have to go back and forth from the list to the SFX link for each request.
It took a minute to figure out what happens after submitting a search because results did display in my browser windo. I had to navigate down screen to see that a view button had been created. I didn't know what a "refereed" publication was, but read through the help screen. Now I know. The SFX button is clear. It would be nice if there was a consistent link across different databases, either SFX, or UC-eLinks.
Pretty much, though I've used SFX (UC-elinks) before. It would be better to check on this with a student who hasn't used it before, but maybe you're already doing that.
Yes

What difficulties did you encounter?

the link to Muse didn't work.
The link to full-text within the SFX window isn't clear. I'm an experienced user and since the mouse pointer doesn't change to a little hand, but an arrow, I think most other users will have difficulty deciphering what to do next.
Unable to access the SFX window. After several attempts I was never able to open a new SFX window to get to the full-text nor search the catalog for holdings.
The first search for the Taliban and Afghanistan article would not connect to sfx. After I had done the other searches I went back and repeated the search and the connection worked.
I found it very confusing that the full text of an article which is loaded at Gale is available via a "View text and retrieval choices" while the full text that is available at one of the publishers' web sites is accessible via the SFX button. There may be a technical reason why this is the way it is (e.g., SFX won't work within a provider's site), but I think this is confusing. You're going to get people used to pressing the SFX button for access to full text and then on the EA ASAP and COMP dbs, they'll miss the loaded text because it's "hidden" behind a link they are not used to using.
For the first example the following error message appeared when I tried to get the full text: "Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser " THEN - I asked to search melvyl which then linked me to the journal and the full text. A LONG, WINDING ROAD TO SUCCESS. For the second example - no full text in the Gale System but on graphicless full text in regular MAGS.
see above
Links to Elsevier ScienceDirect, Project Muse didn't work. However, one link to Highwire worked fine, but, the other link didn't work. It returned an error message: Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser
As I said yesterday, the box for the year is not big enough. It says 200, not 2001. This is off this topic a bit, but for JSTOR titles (like the one we searched for on CSA) there should be a note that warns us "Last 3/5 years (or most recent few years) not available."
I got an error message when I clicked on Project Muse to view the full text. I had to click on the Melvyl link to get to the full text, which took several steps.
I got the following message when I tried to connect to full text through Project Muse, in the scripted test (Afghanistan article): Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser
errors in both searches, see (4)
When given an option to request an article through ILL, the citation showing only lists the article title and a date or volume information. Title of journal doesn't appear, and that makes me worry that request would not be filled. Shouldn't a complete citation cross over to request function? This happened with two different articles. Both times the Journal title disappeared from the citation. I did not actually send the request, but up until the last option to cancel, the journal title was no where to be seen.
see above
SFX link to Elservier ScienceDirect Journals did not work, log-in error?
I like that when you click to enter SFX that it automatically performs the search for you in the new window. Fewer clicks and much less frustration than JSTOR. Tested Request also, seems to look and work fine. Would like the cut & paste and find command though. Would be essential for much searching.
When I looked at the request form, I wasn't sure it knew the article info, because I didn't see any reference.
I did not have access to the full text of the article, "Testing the effectiveness of international norms..." Was I supposed to?
The difficulties that I encountered were mainly that the link to holdings worked inconsistently between the various vendors and sources of electronic copy. In some cases, SFX linked directly to the article in question. In other cases, it linked to the journal site and one had to look for the specific article. In other cases, it linked to the MELVYL catalog where one could discover a link to the journal site. While I am impressed that I was able to find as much content as I did, I am concerned about teaching people all the possible paths they have to take to get it! In one case, (a link to an article in ORBIS titled Afghanistanding), the link which came through MELVYL went to page 406 not 405 which was the first page of the article. The links to full text available from Elsevier ScienceDirect consistently (as of 10/26/01) gave a "Login error: cause: main: error-sorry need parser" message. I was also a little confused by the messages in MELVYL PE that says indicates that electronic text may be available from CDL MAGS. I assume this will go away with the implementation of the new Melvyl catalog and the demise of the cdl-hosted magazine and journal articles database?
Difficulty to find out what SFX was all about
none
When you click on UCLinks, the screen that opens should emphasize the UC campus name and not SFX in the header. The Source info should be more prominent -- bigger text. Also, if you could hyperlink the text Melvyl Catalog. Can we add a link from the SFX services screen to UCI's Ask a Librarian Web page? Our students could then have direct access to a librarian on their campus...??
none.
Bold or red text the "full test" link and/or move the citation info below the "available in your library" link
When I clicked on SFX, a pop-up window opened but couldn't contact the server
After the search you shouldn't have to scroll down to find the results: they should be immediately visible on the screen. There are too many steps between the search and access to the full text.
I like the Link to Request feature. There is the same problem of course, that I've encountered in the PubMed to Request interface where it doesn't remember your profile from request to request. You have to turn on your profile each time. I like the option to either see the fulltext in the Gale interface or call up a PDF file of the article. However, the PDF files seem to take excessively long to load (and I have a pretty fast Pentium III with Acrobat 5.0) Even the small PDF files with only 669K took much longer to load than they should have.
It is still not clear how to search a specific journal title for a known article. I don't think the instructions are clear on how to do such a search. I was trying to search US News and World Report.
none
None with the SFX part. Just that the journal via Ingenta said it couldn't do it with my version of Explorer.
I wish Gale would use similiarly easily seen and differentiated symbols/colors/patterns: it is difficult to discern 'text'/'text and graphics'/abs/'extended citation/ all meld together : incorporate different icons for these (see csa for example). Most importantly, teach sfx to go to the text version (e.g., academic universe in this case for a nyt article); then own campus; then ill (with of course ability to override/choose different sequence).
A citation indicates full text available. I clicked on full text link and linked me to the page for MUSE, which indicated I can't access full texts in MUSE. I connected to the UCSF campus network from home I shouldn't have this problem, should I?
i had forgotten that the bleepin' results show up at the bottom. I thought we had suggested that that get changed.
None.
On the first search example ("find the full text"), the Gale display for this item only indicates "abastract and retrieval choices". The user would have to have previous knowledge about SFX and what it does, and even then would have to guess that full text was an option for this item. I think many users will not be able to complete this task successfully with only this much to go on.
I couldn't find the full text for the first citation in the test.
None, once I clicked on SFX
I could not locate the search button
everytime I clicked to see full text or a citation, when I went back to the list bought up by my search, the list started again at the top of the page, so I had to scroll down to where I had left off
none
None.
the system never let me finish the search. I tried about 3 times then gave up.
Only difficulties encountered were access issues relating to e-resources (see below).
The frames are cut off in the middle of the screen. The text is cut off by the blue frame on the left. I had to go to advance seach to get an author search option. This should be on the first level of searching. Many of our patrons do author searches and this would be more helpful if it was part of the quick search instead of an advance search. Many will fumble around trying to do the first level search and retreive only one result, whereas with the author search you get the whole list in one search. If only they could request them all in one sweep as with CDL.
I didn't like having to click on "view" in order to see results displayed. It took me a minute to figure out that I had to do that and to find the "view" button. It would be better if the results displayed automatically. Also, I'm checking on this using my iBook at home, with a 56K modem, so downloading the article, even in HTML, took some time--about a minute and a half to 2 minutes. I'd say some people might get lost with all the windows opening, too. This happened when I was helping a student at our public workstations, using CSA. She was just overwhelmed, so I simply told her to copy and paste the title into ORION2.
None
the link to Muse didn't work.
The link to full-text within the SFX window isn't clear. I'm an experienced user and since the mouse pointer doesn't change to a little hand, but an arrow, I think most other users will have difficulty deciphering what to do next.
Unable to access the SFX window. After several attempts I was never able to open a new SFX window to get to the full-text nor search the catalog for holdings.
The first search for the Taliban and Afghanistan article would not connect to sfx. After I had done the other searches I went back and repeated the search and the connection worked.
I found it very confusing that the full text of an article which is loaded at Gale is available via a "View text and retrieval choices" while the full text that is available at one of the publishers' web sites is accessible via the SFX button. There may be a technical reason why this is the way it is (e.g., SFX won't work within a provider's site), but I think this is confusing. You're going to get people used to pressing the SFX button for access to full text and then on the EA ASAP and COMP dbs, they'll miss the loaded text because it's "hidden" behind a link they are not used to using.
For the first example the following error message appeared when I tried to get the full text: "Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser " THEN - I asked to search melvyl which then linked me to the journal and the full text. A LONG, WINDING ROAD TO SUCCESS. For the second example - no full text in the Gale System but on graphicless full text in regular MAGS.
see above
Links to Elsevier ScienceDirect, Project Muse didn't work. However, one link to Highwire worked fine, but, the other link didn't work. It returned an error message: Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser
As I said yesterday, the box for the year is not big enough. It says 200, not 2001. This is off this topic a bit, but for JSTOR titles (like the one we searched for on CSA) there should be a note that warns us "Last 3/5 years (or most recent few years) not available."
I got an error message when I clicked on Project Muse to view the full text. I had to click on the Melvyl link to get to the full text, which took several steps.
I got the following message when I tried to connect to full text through Project Muse, in the scripted test (Afghanistan article): Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser
errors in both searches, see (4)
When given an option to request an article through ILL, the citation showing only lists the article title and a date or volume information. Title of journal doesn't appear, and that makes me worry that request would not be filled. Shouldn't a complete citation cross over to request function? This happened with two different articles. Both times the Journal title disappeared from the citation. I did not actually send the request, but up until the last option to cancel, the journal title was no where to be seen.
see above
SFX link to Elservier ScienceDirect Journals did not work, log-in error?
I like that when you click to enter SFX that it automatically performs the search for you in the new window. Fewer clicks and much less frustration than JSTOR. Tested Request also, seems to look and work fine. Would like the cut & paste and find command though. Would be essential for much searching.
When I looked at the request form, I wasn't sure it knew the article info, because I didn't see any reference.
I did not have access to the full text of the article, "Testing the effectiveness of international norms..." Was I supposed to?
The difficulties that I encountered were mainly that the link to holdings worked inconsistently between the various vendors and sources of electronic copy. In some cases, SFX linked directly to the article in question. In other cases, it linked to the journal site and one had to look for the specific article. In other cases, it linked to the MELVYL catalog where one could discover a link to the journal site. While I am impressed that I was able to find as much content as I did, I am concerned about teaching people all the possible paths they have to take to get it! In one case, (a link to an article in ORBIS titled Afghanistanding), the link which came through MELVYL went to page 406 not 405 which was the first page of the article. The links to full text available from Elsevier ScienceDirect consistently (as of 10/26/01) gave a "Login error: cause: main: error-sorry need parser" message. I was also a little confused by the messages in MELVYL PE that says indicates that electronic text may be available from CDL MAGS. I assume this will go away with the implementation of the new Melvyl catalog and the demise of the cdl-hosted magazine and journal articles database?
Difficulty to find out what SFX was all about
none
When you click on UCLinks, the screen that opens should emphasize the UC campus name and not SFX in the header. The Source info should be more prominent -- bigger text. Also, if you could hyperlink the text Melvyl Catalog. Can we add a link from the SFX services screen to UCI's Ask a Librarian Web page? Our students could then have direct access to a librarian on their campus...??
none.
Bold or red text the "full test" link and/or move the citation info below the "available in your library" link
When I clicked on SFX, a pop-up window opened but couldn't contact the server
After the search you shouldn't have to scroll down to find the results: they should be immediately visible on the screen. There are too many steps between the search and access to the full text.
I like the Link to Request feature. There is the same problem of course, that I've encountered in the PubMed to Request interface where it doesn't remember your profile from request to request. You have to turn on your profile each time. I like the option to either see the fulltext in the Gale interface or call up a PDF file of the article. However, the PDF files seem to take excessively long to load (and I have a pretty fast Pentium III with Acrobat 5.0) Even the small PDF files with only 669K took much longer to load than they should have.
It is still not clear how to search a specific journal title for a known article. I don't think the instructions are clear on how to do such a search. I was trying to search US News and World Report.
none
None with the SFX part. Just that the journal via Ingenta said it couldn't do it with my version of Explorer.
I wish Gale would use similiarly easily seen and differentiated symbols/colors/patterns: it is difficult to discern 'text'/'text and graphics'/abs/'extended citation/ all meld together : incorporate different icons for these (see csa for example). Most importantly, teach sfx to go to the text version (e.g., academic universe in this case for a nyt article); then own campus; then ill (with of course ability to override/choose different sequence).
A citation indicates full text available. I clicked on full text link and linked me to the page for MUSE, which indicated I can't access full texts in MUSE. I connected to the UCSF campus network from home I shouldn't have this problem, should I?
i had forgotten that the bleepin' results show up at the bottom. I thought we had suggested that that get changed.
None.
On the first search example ("find the full text"), the Gale display for this item only indicates "abastract and retrieval choices". The user would have to have previous knowledge about SFX and what it does, and even then would have to guess that full text was an option for this item. I think many users will not be able to complete this task successfully with only this much to go on.
I couldn't find the full text for the first citation in the test.
None, once I clicked on SFX
I could not locate the search button
everytime I clicked to see full text or a citation, when I went back to the list bought up by my search, the list started again at the top of the page, so I had to scroll down to where I had left off
none
None.
the system never let me finish the search. I tried about 3 times then gave up.
Only difficulties encountered were access issues relating to e-resources (see below).
The frames are cut off in the middle of the screen. The text is cut off by the blue frame on the left. I had to go to advance seach to get an author search option. This should be on the first level of searching. Many of our patrons do author searches and this would be more helpful if it was part of the quick search instead of an advance search. Many will fumble around trying to do the first level search and retreive only one result, whereas with the author search you get the whole list in one search. If only they could request them all in one sweep as with CDL.
I didn't like having to click on "view" in order to see results displayed. It took me a minute to figure out that I had to do that and to find the "view" button. It would be better if the results displayed automatically. Also, I'm checking on this using my iBook at home, with a 56K modem, so downloading the article, even in HTML, took some time--about a minute and a half to 2 minutes. I'd say some people might get lost with all the windows opening, too. This happened when I was helping a student at our public workstations, using CSA. She was just overwhelmed, so I simply told her to copy and paste the title into ORION2.
None

Did you encounter any errors or erroneous results? If yes, please describe in detail the exact steps you took prior to the error.

full-text of Muse didn't work- error message.
Yes. The full text link to Project Muse sent the following error message: Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser
n/a
The connection to Project Muse came back with an error message of: Login error - need parser.
I found the same login error that other TSC members already reported.
See above.
attempting to retrieve the Muse e-journal text from your test Afghanistan article got this error msg: Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser Subsequent other test searches got this error when retrieving ScienceDirect (Elsevier) e-journal articles.
Since I don't follow directions, I first cliced on the Project Muse button and got: Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser I searched refereed publications for California and energy crisis. Of the 4 hits, three had sfx links. I checked on the 4th one, since there was no link: Environment Bulletin, Feb 5, 2001 pITEM01043001 ENVIRONMENT: ARCTIC DRILLING WON'T SOLVE ENERGY CRISIS - CRITICS. Danielle Knight. I assume than no UC owns this journal???? It seems hard to believe. There are 4 journals by that title in Melvy, but without complete data on the Gale title (I don't know how to get at complete info that would answer the question, such as ISSN of the journal on the Gale interface).
I clicked on Project Muse and got a login error which said: cause : main : error - sorry need parser.
See my answer to #3. Within the SFX window, I clicked on the swirly button that should have taken me to Project Muse.
Yes. Step 1, received error "Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser " when clicking SFX link from both results list and full citation display. Search 2, received error: "Sorry, no services found for current record" from both results list and full citation display.
no errors
No.
See my comments under "What difficulties did you encounter?"
No
When the full text is available, I don't think you need the SFX link, too. When I did the Gale search and selected the article "Heavy Damage Feared After Taliban Decree" in the journal Science, the SFX services screen had a link to Highwire for the full text. The Highwire link did not work. I got the message "the page you requested was not found."
no.
no
No.
This may be a result of the fact that the Request Feature is not really hooked up yet, but I repeatedly got "The Request server could not connect to the campus host system. " error message each time I tried to use REQUEST.
No
no
didn't receive complete info on the nyt formats avaiable at ucsb.
none
No.
On the secons search example ("See if your campus owns the publication..."), the SFX window came up, but the links to Melvyl and Request didn't work. Also, same problem here as in the first example - the user would have to know about SFX, or guess correctly that it would lead to library holdings.
It's difficult to keep track of all the windows popping up -- perhaps the SFX window could be closed when the CDL periodicals window is opened -- also please load a bigger window -- we all have to resize the window so we can see the holdings information.
No.
no
no
No
Test a: Using IE 5.5, SP2, I clicked on SFX icon, then clicked on icon stating "Full text available from Project Muse". However, got the following error message: "AEF.com members, please enter your login and password below for access. We're sorry. You do not have access to this journal from your current workstation. Access to most Muse journals is available only through libraries. If you are affiliated with an institution, our list of subscribers will indicate if your library subscribes, and to which journals. Please contact your library for help if you have questions about your library's subscription or a problem gaining access to a journal in your library's subscription package." Test b: I was asked to check if my campus owns the print version of the journal (it doesn't). However, I noticed that the PE database indicated that there is CDL access to the electronic version. However, the SFX window didn't indicate electronic access, only "check library holdings" and "request ILL." Even the citation indicated that there was electronic access by stating, "View text and full content retrieval choices or 2 full pages PDF."
no.
NA
full-text of Muse didn't work- error message.
Yes. The full text link to Project Muse sent the following error message: Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser
n/a
The connection to Project Muse came back with an error message of: Login error - need parser.
I found the same login error that other TSC members already reported.
See above.
attempting to retrieve the Muse e-journal text from your test Afghanistan article got this error msg: Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser Subsequent other test searches got this error when retrieving ScienceDirect (Elsevier) e-journal articles.
Since I don't follow directions, I first cliced on the Project Muse button and got: Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser I searched refereed publications for California and energy crisis. Of the 4 hits, three had sfx links. I checked on the 4th one, since there was no link: Environment Bulletin, Feb 5, 2001 pITEM01043001 ENVIRONMENT: ARCTIC DRILLING WON'T SOLVE ENERGY CRISIS - CRITICS. Danielle Knight. I assume than no UC owns this journal???? It seems hard to believe. There are 4 journals by that title in Melvy, but without complete data on the Gale title (I don't know how to get at complete info that would answer the question, such as ISSN of the journal on the Gale interface).
I clicked on Project Muse and got a login error which said: cause : main : error - sorry need parser.
See my answer to #3. Within the SFX window, I clicked on the swirly button that should have taken me to Project Muse.
Yes. Step 1, received error "Login error cause: main : error - sorry need parser " when clicking SFX link from both results list and full citation display. Search 2, received error: "Sorry, no services found for current record" from both results list and full citation display.
no errors
No.
See my comments under "What difficulties did you encounter?"
No
When the full text is available, I don't think you need the SFX link, too. When I did the Gale search and selected the article "Heavy Damage Feared After Taliban Decree" in the journal Science, the SFX services screen had a link to Highwire for the full text. The Highwire link did not work. I got the message "the page you requested was not found."
no.
no
No.
This may be a result of the fact that the Request Feature is not really hooked up yet, but I repeatedly got "The Request server could not connect to the campus host system. " error message each time I tried to use REQUEST.
No
no
didn't receive complete info on the nyt formats avaiable at ucsb.
none
No.
On the secons search example ("See if your campus owns the publication..."), the SFX window came up, but the links to Melvyl and Request didn't work. Also, same problem here as in the first example - the user would have to know about SFX, or guess correctly that it would lead to library holdings.
It's difficult to keep track of all the windows popping up -- perhaps the SFX window could be closed when the CDL periodicals window is opened -- also please load a bigger window -- we all have to resize the window so we can see the holdings information.
No.
no
no
No
Test a: Using IE 5.5, SP2, I clicked on SFX icon, then clicked on icon stating "Full text available from Project Muse". However, got the following error message: "AEF.com members, please enter your login and password below for access. We're sorry. You do not have access to this journal from your current workstation. Access to most Muse journals is available only through libraries. If you are affiliated with an institution, our list of subscribers will indicate if your library subscribes, and to which journals. Please contact your library for help if you have questions about your library's subscription or a problem gaining access to a journal in your library's subscription package." Test b: I was asked to check if my campus owns the print version of the journal (it doesn't). However, I noticed that the PE database indicated that there is CDL access to the electronic version. However, the SFX window didn't indicate electronic access, only "check library holdings" and "request ILL." Even the citation indicated that there was electronic access by stating, "View text and full content retrieval choices or 2 full pages PDF."
no.
NA

SFX is a technology that will initially link users to campus holdings, full text, and Request. In the future, it may link to other information such as book reviews, author email addresses, citations appearing in research articles, e-print systems, and other Web resources SFX is a commercial product. If you can think of another short and descriptive name to broadly describe these and future linking services please make a suggestion here.

"Get This" "Get It" "More"
USee ERev UCLinks
All the SFX labels should be the same... like CSA ones are UC-links
How about link to other resoureces.
"Gateway" may be useful. I'd suggest asking undergraduates what would be most informative and useful for them, though. This is how we found out that the word "electronic" is not useful or well understood by undergrads when referring to e-resources. They preferred the term "computerized." (This was a few years ago, though. We haven't checked since then, but we should.)
"Get This" "Get It" "More"
USee ERev UCLinks
All the SFX labels should be the same... like CSA ones are UC-links
How about link to other resoureces.
"Gateway" may be useful. I'd suggest asking undergraduates what would be most informative and useful for them, though. This is how we found out that the word "electronic" is not useful or well understood by undergrads when referring to e-resources. They preferred the term "computerized." (This was a few years ago, though. We haven't checked since then, but we should.)

"Other" responses:

CDL/UCOP
That's all for now--Thanks, Lizbeth
LLNL
This is Cathy Palmer, by the way!
CDL/UCOP
That's all for now--Thanks, Lizbeth
LLNL
This is Cathy Palmer, by the way!

 

Generated: 9/17/2002 4:42:23 PM