Public Interfaces Committee
January 7, 2004
SML 411
Present: Dale Askey, Julie Linden, Karen Reardon, Andy Shimp, Tao Yang (recorder),
Rick Zwies
1. Announcements, project updates
Yale Portal
Karen reported two new features have been added to the library portion of the
portal: an RSS feed of library news and the Orbis search box and selected library
links. Julie, Kalee, and Karen will meet with the ITS portal team next week
to discuss possible new developments on the library portion.
Medical's combined search: www.library.yale.edu/journals/indexall.html
This test page searches across the databases of online journals, online books,
and databases; Medical is testing it for implementation on their site. Some
suggestions were offered for modifying the results page: describe each source
briefly and move the databases part up to the top since it's always a shorter
list. Andy suggested a possible use of it on the Front Door would be to put
the search box in the online journals page and return databases in the results,
to remind users to look at databases while searching for journal articles.
Translating Front Door into selected languages
Julie reported her communications with Ann Okerson. The group discussed briefly
whether to translate FD into IFLA official languages first as Ann suggested.
Julie and Tao are going to have a discussion with curators on 1/20.
MetaLib/ENCompass evaluation
Dale described briefly the evaluation scene and reported on the public
meeting held in November. The implementation date is uncertain, but indications
are that we will be moving forward with one of the products, most likely MetaLib.
Rick asked about the license issue and whether MetaLib could be implemented
on the Medical Library's site under the existing library license; Karen and
Dale thought probably so.
Book Purchase Request form suggestion (skipped)
New proxy server
Karen reported new proxy server is ready for implementation on Monday, January
12. The change will be advertised in as many places as possible (FD news section,
messages to yulpub-l and yulib-l). The links to off-campus access on FD and
databases page will be re-worded to alert users to re-configure their web browsers.
Julie will ask Bonnie to make the changes on FD and Karen will double-check
the instruction page for accuracy.
Notifying Orbis outage
Dale brought up other staff's suggestion to post Orbis outage to a list of service
desk e-mail addresses (smlref, sslref, etc.) in addition to yulib. Karen said
the Communications Committee is exploring ways to make the notification on yulib
more effective (e.g. unique heading). She said that creating a new list of service
desks for Orbis outage notification would create unnecessary work for the Systems
Office, and that staff members should always consult the machine status on Web
& Workstations Services home page for outage information.
Online Books page removal
Julie reported she received few negative responses from staff on the decision
to remove Online Books from FD. Andy was concerned several thousand e-books
from 24/7 are not in Orbis yet. Julie responded that when PIC reviewed the content
of the Online Books database against online books cataloged in Orbis, there
was a great deal of overlap and the balance is now tilted toward Orbis. Science
as well as Medical is keeping the Online Books database on its own web site.
PIC agreed that the Online Books link could be removed from the Front Door this
week.
Add LSF to library locations page?
The consensus is to add LSF to library locations page. Dale suggested noting
LSF is not publicly accessible and users should ask at the reference desk.
2. PIC thinking about possible Orbis usability testing, Front Door redesign
No devoted discussion on this issue.
3. Suggestion for addition to Digital Collections page
Todd Gilman asked if the DC page could include or link to a Yale-and-beyond-digital-images
page compiled by Martha Smalley:
http://www.library.yale.edu/rsc/refdesk/imageinfo.htm
The page compiled by Martha is a staff resource, not a public page; Karen suggested
that the DC page link instead to the Image Finder page (http://resources.library.yale.edu/online/if.asp),
but she'll have someone ready that page for public presentation first.
4. Request to add Special Collections link to FD (under Libraries &
Collections) (guest: Martha Smalley)
Martha presented two reasons for this request. First, the University Librarian
wants to make Special Collections more prominent to attract public attention
and donors. Second, feedback from the Special Collections fellow indicated Yale's
special collections are less prominent (on the web) than some other libraries.
PIC members offered suggestions as to modify the Special Collections page: move
the list of collections up to the front (modeling after Digital Collections
page), having more images, etc. Martha indicated that the CDC Special Collections
Subcommittee will be considering major changes to the Special Collections pages
in the coming months; for now, she will change the SC home page to include the
list of collections. The group favored adding the link to FD after the page
is redesigned. Julie will have Bonnie mockup a FD page where Special Collections
will be above Digital Collections and Computers in the Library will move into
"About the Library" column.
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