Melvyl Matters
Volume 1, Number 2, February 2005
In this issue:
- Melvyl survey results in
- What do users like least about the catalog
- Display of campus circulation information
- Modify search
- More on the merge algorithm
- "Not"- ing out a campus location
- Truncation
Recently a survey was conducted of library staff users of the Melvyl Catalog. The final report can be seen at: http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/melvyl/melvylstaff_survey_nov2004.pdf
In this and following issues of Melvyl Matters we'll be addressing some of the responses to the survey. Here we'll be concentrating on the most common criticisms of the Melvyl catalog survey respondents cited.
What do users like least about the catalog
The most often mentioned negative comment about the Melvyl Catalog is the inability of users to see the call numbers except in the full record display (Details/Locations link); many respondents commented that they would like the call number displayed on the initial list of search results. CDL has recognized this issue from the inception of the new catalog. The Ex Libris system architecture for the union catalog brings together the holdings information from all of the records that merge as one bibliographic entity only at the time of the full record display. CDL is in a continuing dialogue with Ex Libris, exploring ways in which the records might be displayed from the initial search results; however, this situation will not be changing in the foreseeable future.
Survey respondents also object to the lack of a single circulation status display page for all holdings. In the Ex Libris system architecture, all circulation information is pulled live from the campus catalogs individually. The circulation records cannot be displayed simultaneously in this system. In terms of performance, Melvyl's response time is faster in this model than if all circulation records were pulled and displayed together, sometimes in order to display just one campus's circulation records.
Display of campus circulation information
Some survey respondents mentioned other problems with the display of campus circulation information, such as incorrect shelving information. Location information in Melvyl reflects the information that is in the local campus records loaded into Melvyl. If shelving information is incorrect, this problem should be addressed at the campus level. Likewise, sometimes a campus server is down, so local circulation information cannot be obtained and displayed. This is not a Melvyl catalog weakness, but a temporary campus problem.
Several respondents commented on the lack of UCLA circulation information. Because of the migration of UCLA's catalog to its new Endeavor system, new programming by Ex Libris was required to enable linking to the new system to retrieve circulation status. The new programming has just been fully tested and will be brought into Melvyl shortly; by the time you are reading this, it may already be in place.
Another feature users criticized was the limited functionality of the "modify search" feature. Users expect to be able to modify a search by adding limits, such as library and format, and not only by adding a new title, author, etc. The Melvyl Operation Team expects this feature to be improved in version 16 of the software, projected to be released in 2005. In the meantime, users can use the back button to return to either Basic or Advanced Search in order to modify a search result with limits such as location, date, and language.
Merging over 25,000,000 records is a complex issue; it was difficult to do in legacy Melvyl and it's difficult now. Survey respondents commented on two particular merge problems: One occurs when a campus record shows up in more than one merged cluster. Ex Libris is currently testing a program designed to resolve this problem, but at this time there is no timeline for when this improvement will be ready to be brought to the Melvyl catalog.
A second merge problem occurs when some records merge that should not, especially in the case of formats other than books and serials, such as maps. In the legacy system, only books and serials merged (in their separate databases). Records in other formats did not merge at all. The decision was made in the new version of the Melvyl catalog to merge other formats; however, the need for format-specific merging rules has surfaced. CDL is addressing this issue with the assistance of UC Heads of Technical Services (HOTS).
Other problems with merging have to do with the way campuses choose to catalog their records. Because of the way some campuses catalog items, records will never merge in some cases. Comments such as one respondent's criticism of the "unevenness and inaccuracy of much of the [catalog] information" are related to the records that are fed into Melvyl from the campuses. No records are created at the CDL or "by" Melvyl. While "Patrons are in general confused by Melvyl-so many records for the same thing," one survey respondent commented. We agree-it is confusing sometimes to look at records containing the same item in different editions, formats, and languages!
"Not"- ing out a campus location
The inability to "NOT" out a campus location, such as "and not at UCSB" is another area that elicited negative comments in the survey. Although this feature was available in legacy Melvyl, it is not a capability we asked for or were promised in the original RFP for a new Melvyl catalog. Campus and CDL staff wrote the RFP together.
An additional area of "what I like least about the Melvyl catalog" consists of comments relating to truncation; mainly, that truncation often results in a message saying "Your search term found too many results. Please refine your search." In this version of the Melvyl catalog system architecture, there are different costs, benefits, and trade-offs than in legacy Melvyl. In order to keep performance speedy, we had to sacrifice some of legacy Melvyl's truncation capabilities.
While you can't always use, as one respondent put it, "3 character truncation of periodical words in old Melvyl PE", a reference to the ability of users to truncate journal titles by using just three letters per word of a journal title in the legacy Melvyl Periodicals (PE) database, you can still do some nice journal title searching with abbreviations-just DON'T use the truncation symbol. Examples are searching for Exact journal "phys chem chem phys", and even some single letter searching, as in "j fam". For more information see the Melvyl FAQ on journal searching.
Next issue: So what's to like?