Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Last Friday, I attended an overview session of the new HOLLIS interface, HOLLIS beta. From what I’ve learned, the new interface comes out of the recognition that the current HOLLIS interface simply isn’t working well, and is no longer sufficient for the needs of Harvard users.  HOLLIS beta is an attempt to develop a more user-driven search interface, rather than one solely designed by librarians and experts.

Today’s post will cover the highlights of what I learned about the new interface, which is expected to go live tomorrow soon.  (Update 4/7/2009: The new interface is now live, and you can find it at http://lib.harvard.edu/catalogs/hollis.h… Or, you can find it listed as “HOLLIS” under the HOLLIS Catalogs button, at http://lib.harvard.edu.)  If you would like to see what the new interface looks like before it goes live, please stop by my desk, and I’ll be happy to show you.

General Information

• The new interface is called “HOLLIS beta.”  This is to indicate that the new interface is under development, and that the developers are actively seeking user input to shape and craft the interface over the next several months to conform to Harvard users’ online search expectations and practices.
• Thus, feedback is expected and welcomed. There will be links to evaluation forms for you to fill out throughout the search form, and to note mistakes in HOLLIS records needing correcting.  Again, the new interface is meant to be user-driven, not librarian-driven, reflecting your searching patterns and habits.  Your feedback will help to make this happen.
• Given that the new interface is in beta testing, the older interface — called “HOLLIS Classic” — will remain in place until at least the fall of 2009, from my understanding.  Also, all Request Item forms and Account forms will leave the new interface and return to the HOLLIS Classic page for the time being, as will results obtained from the LibX search tool.

Searching

• The default search is the Basic Search box.  For now, users are being advised to use this search option, as the Advanced Search option is limited, at present.
• You will also have the option to search “Text-only,” without all of the graphics and Word Cloud present.  (Very useful, too, if you are having trouble reading the current layout, the colors and font of which are still being refined.)
• Searching in the new interface is much closer to natural language searching.  You do have the option of using the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT, which must be capitalized in search strings.
• Searches are not case sensitive.
• Nested searches are possible, e.g., plato (forms OR ideas)
• If you are using multiple search terms, the default search is a Boolean AND search (no need to add in the word “AND.”)  So, if you search virtue ethics, the new interface will treat it as virtue AND ethics.

Unfortunately, there is no phrase searching at present, so if you enter the phrase “virtue ethics,” the search engine will ignore the quotation marks.  However, it will return results with the two terms next to each other at the top of the results list.

• The back button on your browser works such that you will not lose a search or search terms, as is the case with HOLLIS Classic
• To start over, simply click on the HOLLIS beta name.

Refining searches

• To the right of the results list, there will be a list of “facets.”  These include a drop-down menu of library locations where the results are found, and options such as Online, Publication Date, Topic, Format, and so forth. Click on these facets to refine your search results.
• Facets can be added sequentially, but not all at once.  It is much easier to explain how to do this in a training session, so please contact me if you are interested in learning more about how to do this.
• Facets that you’ve clicked on will also be listed just above the search results.  You can “remove” or “keep” the facet in your search by clicking on it.

One thing to note about choosing a library location: doing so will lock into in future searches that you undertake during your session.  Thus, if you are looking for books in Robbins in your first search, but forget to remove it for subsequent searches, you may find that you return no results.  Simply remove the limiter, rerun your search, and you should be all set.

Advanced Searching

• There is a link to the Advanced Search form next to the Basic Search box.
• As noted above, this option is very limited at present, so you may want to use the Basic Search option for the time being.
• Searches can be limited by format and fielded keyword searches.
• This option will be refined over the coming months and improved.

Command Searches

• Advanced searching can be done using Command Searches in the Basic Search field. The most common Command Searches that you’ll likely use are Author (author:first name last name or author: last name first name) and Title (title:full title), entered exactly like this.  So, e.g., author:derek parfit title:reasons and persons — since the default search is the Boolean AND search, you don’t need to put “AND” in between the author and title Command Search function. (If you would like to use things like ISBN numbers, subject, publisher, and the like, please contact me for a complete list of Command Searches.) This option is useful for looking for specific books, without having to wade through long lists of results.

Results

• Results are returned in order of relevance, though you do have the option of resorting the records by year or author.
• Journal titles are sorted to the top of the list, which should help for short journal titles like Ratio, and indeed for all journal searching.
• Also, journal records will show holdings of that journal at all locations.
• Word variants: the search engine automatically looks for variations of a word, along with words formed from the same stem.  E.g., Disobediance also returns disobedience; adolescent also returns adolescents and adolescence. If you do not want this to happen, simply add quotation marks around the word.
• “Did you mean to search for…?” suggestions: if you misspell a search term, or enter in a term that returns no results, the search engine will ask you, “Did you mean to search for…?”  Thus, if you enter in “pyschology” as your search term, you may be prompted for “Did you mean to search for psychology?”
• Individual records of books, journals, and other items contain a URL that can be bookmarked.
• If you check items from searches to save in a list, the list of results is cumulative across multiple searches, and you will not lose this list should you move on to another search.

Word Cloud

One of the features of the new HOLLIS interface is the Word Cloud, found in the left-hand panel next to your search results. What is this feature?

• The Word Cloud contains words that the search engine determines are closely related to the term(s) you searched.  It is more of a three-dimensional model of classification, rather than the traditional two-dimensional hierarchies of most cataloging systems.
• The Cloud only includes terms that will retrieve hits.
• The size of the font of the Cloud term indicates the relevance of the term.
• Please note that the distance or direction of a Cloud term from the center term of the Cloud has no significance.
• The color of cloud term indicates the type of relationship:

Associations are related words that are found by co-occurrence analysis, and are often found near the search term in the catalog

Discovery trail shows terms you have already searched or clicked in the Word Cloud

Spelling variations are terms that occur in the catalog and are spelled similarly

Thesaurus terms are Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings that are similar to the term(s) searched

Translations are worlds from built-in dictionaries and are only displayed if they are found in the catalog.

• If you click on a Word Cloud term, this executes a new search rather than modifying the original search.  The previous search term affects the relevance ranking of the new results.  Records containing both the Word Cloud term and your previous search term will be ranked highest.
• Also, if you click on a Word Cloud term, you will be able to use the back button on your browser to return to your original search, without losing it.
• Clicking on a facet does not change the Word Cloud.
• Finally, the Word Cloud will often catch spelling errors and other mistakes in HOLLIS records, so, if you spot one, please report it via the Feedback tool, so that it can be corrected.

This feature can be useful when doing broad searches.  It is also best shown live, so please contact me for a demonstration.

When to use HOLLIS Classic

For some searches, HOLLIS Classic will be the better choice for searching Harvard’s library records.  These searches include:

• For string or phrase searching
• Complex Boolean searches
• Searches with a specific date range or date
• Sophisticated or targeted searches.

Known Issues

• There are known display issues with the fonts and colors, especially with the Internet Explorer browser.  For now, you might be better off using Firefox, Safari, or another browser with HOLLIS beta.
• The new interface will display non-Latin characters, but it does not fully support searching for these characters at present.

All of this is a lot to take in, so please don’t hesitate to contact me for an overview or tutorial — indviduals, groups, whomever — I’m happy to help in any way that I can!