Today I answer three more queries in our continuing series of Real Questions from Real People about the coming library website migration.
If I can ask about the design … the search box says “Search All.” What’s it mean? Search website? IUCAT? OneSearch? etc
Screen capture of the search box from the first visual design comps
I’ve added an illustration above from the first set of design comps (which we will be sharing at the April brown bag event) so that everyone can follow along. The new search box will work similarly to the current library search AND to the new IUCAT search; it will be similar to the current library search in that results will be returned from a variety of targets (site content, Serials Solutions e-journal info, OneSearch, etc) and it will be like the new IUCAT search box in that users will be able to search all or to opt to restrict their searches to a particular subset of results [see below].
Screen capture of the new IUCAT search box with options visible
The search results page will allow users to view results organized by facets and facets may be determined either by type of information (resources) or by target (OneSearch@IU). That said, we are still working with the consultants’ UX and development teams on how exactly the search page will be laid out and what exact targets it will search, so I don’t have anything more detailed I can share … yet.
Are you incorporating Libguides into the Drupal design? Or will this be separate?
Eventually we would like to be able to move toward a tight integration between Drupal, LibGuides and our campus course management system (Michigan has a great pattern for this in place) but for the time being the systems will be fairly separate. We will link to LibGuides, of course, and we should be able to harvest data from LibGuides so they can be included in search. Until some decisions are made campus-wide about Sakai (aka Oncourse), we are going to hold tight on anything further, though.
Would the interaction between the new website and the new IUCAT be any different?
For starters, no, it will probably not be that different in that we will still link to IUCAT widely from across the site; but because the new IUCAT and the new website will each have more functionality we can work with, we are hopeful that the interaction will eventually be different and better. One thing that will be hugely better right away will be the ease of finding and using permalinks for the new IUCAT anywhere, not just in the new website.
Have questions? Want answers? Attend one of our brown bag events to discuss the migration with us (details) or drop us a line.
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