Re: [VuFind-General] Alphabetical subject browse - implementing libraries?

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The National Library of Australia has incorporated subject browse into
their version of VuFind:
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Browse/Subjects?browse=subjects&from=kangaroo

Their code is available here:
https://code.nla.gov.au/redmine/projects/show/nlabrowse

Some of the librarians at MPOW feel strongly that subject/author/title
browse is a requirement for a production catalog, so looking into this
is on my "to-do-sometime" list. I've e-mailed a bit with Mark Triggs,
the developer of the code at NLA, and he's more than willing to help
anyone who wants to use the code. However, he says that NLA's VuFind
is based on an older version of VuFind, so it may or may not work
nicely with VuFind 1.0.

Julia

*********************************************
Julia Bauder
Data Services Librarian
Grinnell College Libraries
1111 Sixth Ave.
Grinnell, IA 50112

641-269-4431

On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 8:09 AM, Demian Katz <dem...@vi...> wrote:
> The main VuFind distribution does not include a traditional alphabetical
> subject browse like you describe.  However, it’s certainly possible that one
> exists “in the wild,” and if so, I would be interested in incorporating it
> in the main distribution so others can take advantage of it.
>
>
>
> In the meantime, VuFind does have a couple of things that might interest
> you:
>
>
>
> 1.)    The “Browse” module -- http://vufind.org/demo/Browse/Home.  This is
> NOT designed for known-item searching in the same way that a traditional
> OPAC browse is.  It doesn’t show everything in your catalog – it just shows
> common headings and allows you to combine topic/genre/era/author in various
> ways.  I view this as more of a toy than a really targeted search tool – it
> may be helpful for serendipity and finding collection trends, but it’s not
> great for helping with focused research.  This may be what you heard about
> when it was mentioned that newer versions of VuFind include browse.
>
> 2.)    The “Author” module --
> http://vufind.org/demo/Author/Search?lookfor=&sort=author.  This allows an
> alphabetical author browse, and you can adjust the search by editing the
> “lookfor” parameter in the URL.  Note that this is not currently a
> left-anchored search (it’s a “keyword anywhere” search), but the behavior
> can be adjusted.  It would not be difficult to write a “Subject” module that
> behaves almost exactly the same way, except for subject headings instead of
> authors.  If you have a developer interested on working on this, I can help
> point them in the right direction.  If not, we can open a JIRA ticket as a
> reminder to implement this functionality – I might be able to find time to
> put together a quick test implementation in the not-too-distant future if
> it’s important to you.
>
>
>
> Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help!
>
>
>
> - Demian
>
>
>
> From: Nancy Falciani-White [mailto:nan...@wh...]
> Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 5:00 PM
> To: vuf...@li...
> Subject: [VuFind-General] Alphabetical subject browse - implementing
> libraries?
>
>
>
> Hello all,
>
>
>
> I’m new to this list, did a quick browse of the archives and didn’t come up
> with an answer, so thought I’d see what I could find out with a post to the
> list.
>
>
>
> My institution is part of a consortium that recently switched its universal
> catalog over to vufind. Individual libraries are allowed to decide whether
> to do the same for their local catalogs. My library  is hesitating, in part
> because of customizations that we're trying to realize, but in part because
> of browse features that seem (at least in our existing version) not to be
> available. Our advanced researchers make use of browse subject quite a lot,
> and our less advanced students use it to brainstorm and explore. Our current
> WebVoyage catalog allows a start of subject search for, say, Kenya, which
> provides, of course, books with the subject heading Kenya, but also lists
> all the free-floating subject headings (e.g., constitutional history,
> description and travel, etc.) alphabetically.
>
>
>
> This functionality is not available through vufind in the edition our
> consortium is currently running (an older one, I was told), and while I’ve
> been told that this is available for local implementation in newer versions
> of the software, we’re interested in seeing it in use.
>
>
>
> Are there a few libraries out there who have implemented newer versions of
> VuFind and are using this feature? If so, would you be willing to share your
> website so that we can see how it functions? Please let me know, too, if
> you’d be willing to be contacted (off-list) for conversations regarding
> implementation.
>
>
>
> We're anxious to serve our students with more discovery-oriented resources,
> but not at the expense of more advanced search functions.
>
>
>
> Thanks so much for your time!
>
> Nancy
>
>
>
> --
> Nancy Falciani-White
>
> Assistant Professor
> Reference & Instruction Librarian
> Buswell Memorial Library
> Wheaton College
> Wheaton, IL 60187
> Office: (630) 752-5447
>
> Ref. Desk: (630) 752-5169
>
>
>
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