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Working Group: OPAC

This page contains an ongoing summary of the findings/discussion of the OPAC Working Group which began reviewing the PINES OPAC during June of 2014.

Members

Discussions were coordinated by the PINES Program Manager, Terran McCanna.

Library staff who contributed to the suggestions included:

  • Kimberly S. Clayton, Clayton County Library System
  • Taneka Dixon, Pine Mountain Regional Library System
  • John Mack Freeman, Coastal Plain Regional Library
  • Martha Goodson, West Georgia Regional Library
  • Trudi F. Green, Athens Regional Library System
  • Elaine Hardy, Georgia Public Library Service
  • Michael Kennedy, Lee County Public Library
  • Kathryn Millikan, Lee County Public Library
  • Cristina Hernandez Trotter, Oconee Regional Library System
  • Betsy Powell, Northwest Georgia Regional Library
  • Ginny VanOrsdale, Clayton County Library System
  • Kelli Williams, West Georgia Regional Library
  • Ben Young, Lee County Public Library

Discussion Suggestions

General Notes from Working Group Members

  • “Make it less of a tool that requires specific knowledge to get the most out of it, and more of a fun experience for patrons.”
  • “I feel to properly compete, for that is what we are doing, getting to people to use a library instead of purchasing their needs, that we need something not only more accessible, but more suggestive. Right now people need to have an idea of what they want, or they are just staring at a bunch of words and boxes that do nothing to invite them to browse our selection. Let’s give them something that is easy browse, something that makes suggestions based on their search and based on what other patrons have searched.”

Topic 1: Home Page / Basic Search Screen

  • Look and Feel
    • Add something of more current or topical to home page (similar to how the Kids’ Catalog has the special interest categories, or how Cobb County’s site shows the most popular authors and titles currently being checked out, or how Barnes & Noble features sliding banners).
    • Make the home page look more like the Kids Cat homepage in design: a. Single color background, b. Increased text size, c. Arrange search boxes in CENTER of screen below large PINES logo, d. Move “Browse” button to less conspicuous area.
    • See also: Gwinnett’s bright and welcoming feel, Cobb’s bold icons.
    • Add more breathing room between menu items / elements.
    • The large PINES logo is unnecessary and the space could be used in more interesting ways.
  • Search Fields
    • Search entry box should be wider (either fixed in a wider position, or adjusting size if a lot of text is typed in).
    • Make it clearer how to search all of PINES rather than just the local library (or vice versa).
    • Consider removing some of the “library language” such as “Keyword” and “All Formats.”  On commercial book store sites they simply open the
      drop-down menus with the first item, rather than describing what is in the drop-down list.
    • Replace “Type” with “Search By”
    • Replace “Format” with “Limit To”
    • Consider a unified search bar on the home page (see NYPL.org) and then break the search page up into formats and other criteria on the second stage of search.
    • Consider moving the “library” search option and the “search” button below the other search options (like it looks when you make your browser
      smaller), and possibly centering everything on the page so that it looks better on large monitors.
    • Change “PINES” to “All PINES Libraries”
    • Selecting a specific library in the library list is difficult, particularly for patrons who do not know the name of their regional system – how can we make that easier? Choose a location from a map? Or by zipcode or county?
    • Add small link to Search Tips
  • Menus
    • Make some links (GALILEO, Kids’ Catalog, Find a Library, My Account) more graphical – possibly add brief description of GALILEO as well.
    • Remove the footer menu (because it duplicates the header menu).
    • Make the My Account option more obvious – Adjust position? Make more graphical? Make larger? Move it down onto the black bar?
    • See also: NYPL.org’s side menu
    • In the drop down menus, having buttons to toggle might be more helpful when trying to determine/remember what search options are being used.
    • “Help” should be farther to the right on the menu
    • Possibly eliminate the line that has “Search the Catalog” and “Browse the Catalog” and reorganize options

Topic 2: Search Results Screen

  • Header, Footer, and Menus
    • Search entry box should be wider (either fixed in a wider position, or adjusting size if a lot of text is typed in)
    • My Account button seems out of place in the far right corner when nothing else reaches to the right margin.
    • No need for two “Advanced Search” options
    • Either eliminate “Another Search” button or change it to “New Search” or “Clear Search”
    • Move “Limit to Available Items” to left column with other limiters.
    • Move “Format” to left column (“Limit by Format”).
    • “Preferred library” is confusing. The question mark link suggests that clicking it will clarify what it is, but it doesn’t. Could it be turned into
      a tool tip if hovered over as well as staying the link it is?
    • The line with the search results totals and page navigation could use more white space between the elements.
  • Facets
    • Label the entire column (“Filter Search Results” or something along those lines)
    • Make it clearer that facets on left can help narrow down search, and make it more obvious how to ‘undo’ a facet limit (see the way Amazon and other sites use checkboxes)
    • Any way to simplify left column so that it does not look so busy? Possibly collapsing some of the categories? 
    • More descriptive terms that show the difference between “personal,” “corporate,” and “name.”
    • Change “Personal” to “Authors” or “Authors and Illustrators”
    • Change “Corporate” to “Corporate Author”
    • Change “Name” to “Subject: Person”
    • Expand “Geographic” to “Geographic <noun>” or “Subject: Location” or “Subject: Place”
    • Change “Topic” to “Subject” or “Subject: Topic”
    • Change “SeriesTitle” to “Series”
    • Move Series to bottom of list
    • Add ability to filter results by language
  • Items
    • Results that don’t have covers look odd – possibly replace the blank image with a gray image or placeholder?
    • Make cover image larger
    • The format terminology (i.e. language material, projected medium, etc.) is too technical for the average person. It would be better to either not have it listed on the search results screen (just keep the icon), or make the terms easier to understand (e.g. book, video, audio, etc.).
    • “Language material” should be “Book”
    • “Nonmusical sound recording” should be “Audiobooks”
    • “Projected medium” should be “DVD/Video.” (Basically, item records terminology should match the “Format” option terminology in searching.)
    • Consider renaming “Add to my list” – perhaps call it a “Wish List”?
    • Consider making the “Show More Details” view the default view (perhaps if the library names and call numbers did not wrap)
    • Allow more horizontal space for the details of the search results. The current location of “Place hold” and “Add to my list” create a whole lot of unused space.
    • When doing a system level search, it would be nice to have the copy availability of the branches listed on the search results screen
    • The way that availability is worded is also a little strange: “2 of 7 copies available at PINES” sounds odd, “2 of 7 copies available in PINES” sounds better.
    • Consider re-ordering the availability: For example, if you do a search of Laurens County Library, the availability info for Laurens County Library should be listed first, followed by OCRL, then PINES. Likewise, a system-level search should have the system’s availability info listed first, followed by PINES.
  • Search Relevance Ranking
    • Items with more copies should be higher (at least when doing a title search)
    • Items that are more popular should be higher
    • Newer materials should be higher (but not necessarily given any more weight than items with more copies)
    • Keyword searches should prioritize the 245 field because patrons are used to Google/Amazon style keyword searches and type in the
      title as a keyword search.
    • Title searches should prioritize 245 before searching in the 246 fields.
    • 100 and 245 field should receive higher importance. Then 650/subjects and then 500/520 fields.
  • Other
    • Add ability to “Show All” results or show greater number of results per page

Topic 3: Item Details Screen

  • If possible, display the holdings in an easier to read/browse way – grouping the system titles first with the branch titles for each indented.
  • Patrons do not know what “Formatted Content Note” means – perhaps say “Contents” or “Table of Contents”
  • Possibly hide series links/references for the moment (until the data reingestion occurs and series info is more complete?)
  • Additional content – can we do anything to correct weird spacing, diacritics not displaying correctly?
  • Make the “Awards/Reviews” box toggle close like the others (keep defaulting it to be open, but allow ability to close it)
  • Put record details in a more prominent position
  • Electronic Resource – make it more clear when this is an actual electronic text versus just a table of contents or something negligible
  • Possibly change “Additional Content” section to “Table of Contents”
  • Change item type terminology (Language Material -> Book)
  • Navigation line at top beginning with “Search Results” – make font sizes equal, and change wording of result number to “Showing Item 1 of about 568”
  • Tiny question mark next to preferred library listing is difficult to see and patrons do not understand it – change to a descriptive link such as “(Change Library)”
  • Increase white space between “<Previous Next>” – maybe make more descriptive: “<Previous Item      Next Item>”
  • Consider breaking up the page with some background color blocking – I like how the page is broken up on the search results page with the grey fill (grey behind “Another Search – Advanced Search – Sort by…”
  • The line starting with the item’s title: As is, there should be just a bit more white space above the title. But if the above line had a grey fill, I don’t think it would be necessary.
  • I feel like the item format Icon and wording should be moved somewhere else, or something done so it doesn’t seem to be just floating…but what?
  • This page should include the total number of copies available, like the search results page, not just show the number of available copies.
  • The print option is pretty useless for patrons…since it doesn’t include call # info. (We really need a way for patrons to easily print titles they are interested in. Even when we add it to a list, there is not a nice way to print titles. Also, I don’t think patrons should have to add books to a list to print multiple titles. (Example referred to Tulane University OPAC which has checkboxes next to each search result to choose which ones to print – it then prints titles with call numbers. Since those items have a single call number and ours could have a different call number for each copy, a decision would have to be made to determine what call number should print – perhaps only print call numbers if viewing items for a specific branch?) (Same issues hold true for the email option.)
  • Move location of “E-Resource” section of page lower – it usually does not provide a link to the actual resource, just related resources such as TOC, and the current layout sometimes causes conflicts with the add to list / print / email links making them unusable.
  • Library holdings – Shelving Location column should be moved over between location and call number for better readability / usability.
  • While all record details do not need to be at the top of the page. I do think more could be displayed with the title. (Maybe the format icon could go with that.) The physical description, publisher, & pub date definitely should be at the top of the page with author & title info.
  • Content descriptions wording could be changed. However, I would be interested to see the whole list of possible displayed fields before suggesting wording options.
  • Search for related subjects:
    • Overall, is fine as is…However, I can’t remember if I already mentioned that French and German subject headings should not display on any pages.
    • I could see some sort of helpful tip about how these links work, but unable to provide concise enough wording at this minute. Is it possible to add a Help link such that when the patron overs the help a pop-up appears that explains how these subject headings work, with an example to help explain?
  • Search for related items by series:
    • It seems that the 800 series links don’t work. And the links to the 490/830$v also do not work.
    • I say all this knowing that we now have access to the series list via Novelist, but it would be great to not have to depend on subscription-based content to get good series info.
    • If we can’t fine-tune the displayed series info, I suggest removing it.
  • Awards, Reviews & Suggested Reads: I agree that this should be collapsible, although defaulting to expanded is good.

Topic 4: Advanced Search Screens

  • “Search Input” section has a lot of white space on the right side. Can we use that space for a “Search Tips” area including how to truncate, what the Boolean terms are for, etc?
  • I suggest moving the “Search” and “Clear Form” buttons to below the “Search Filters” Section. This will hint to patrons that everything they want to complete should be completed before they push the search button.
  • Explain somewhere that using the Shift and/or Control keys (or Mac-equivalents??) can help you select more than one entry at a time.
  • Make the filter list boxes larger in order to include more examples. For instance, with the languages, there are 12 languages above a dashed line. It can be confusing to search through the entire long list only to find that Spanish is at the top, but just before the long list. The common languages thing is nice–if you know it works that way.
  • Is it possible to combine the numeric search options with the advanced search dropdown? Why not have the drop down with keyword, title, author, etc include call numbers, ISBN, etc? That would remove one extra area and would then leave us with “Basic Search”, “Advanced Search”, and “Expert Search”. Those are terms patrons can easily identify with and can decide for themselves their level of comfort.
  • I’d also suggest changing the words “Search Input”  to something less jargon-y, like “type in your search” or “i’m looking for …”
  • One issue I’ve had is clicking the clear button rather than search. This happens when the system is running slow and you click “search” more than once. The “clear” button goes exactly where the “search” button was.
  • It would be great if we could go back to the 2011 version and offer all advanced searches in one pane. For example, ISBN should be in advanced search, not in numeric search. Although staff knows what that is, can we say that patrons know as well.
  • Also, the search and clear button should be moved to the end or bottom of the search options/filters.
  • I too agree that adding the numeric search in the Advanced would be beneficial. Truthfully, I forget we have that search option. And I know patrons don’t know what the “Numeric” search even means.
  • Question: “Shelving Location” I see this pops up on some, but not all counties. Is there a reason for this that I may have missed or don’t know about?  (Need to make it more obvious that Shelving Location only appears after a branch is selected.)
  • And lastly, the rectangle box beside limit to available, what is its function? (Need to make it more clear that this field is related to the publication date – perhaps contain it in a box so that it resembles the other filter lists.)
  • The SEARCH and CLEAR FORM buttons could be moved to the very bottom of the search screen to maybe encourage patrons to use the filters in their search.
  • Publication Year: Can the value entry box be moved?  It could possibly be placed beside the Drop Down box to give it a better placement and more natural feel when selecting. It seems kind of displaced with the box being below the drop down and right next to the “Limit to Available” option.
  • Possibly place a short explanation next to “Limit to Available” option since it is down at the bottom alone.
  • The Keyword selection could be placed at the bottom of the search input list, since a lot of patrons search by Title and Author.
  • Doing a numeric search by barcode with a single branch selected displays the search results differently than a regular search does – it shows the PINES holdings but not the system or branch holdings.
  • I don’t see the need to have the TCN search being an option for the OPAC, since it is available via EG’s menu and keyboard shortcut.
  • Only include languages for which there are items in PINES.
  • Limit to available, Search Library, and Sort results should be moved up and placed under the Search Input boxes.
  • Publication Year input box should be to the right of  the drop-down list of options…also moved up so that is right under the Search Input boxes.

Topic 5: Browse Catalog Screen

  • Use the white space to explain what “Browse the Catalog” does or to suggest possible uses for it. I find this search to have been very inaccurate in the past, but I’ve used it to help patrons identify “that red book with the author starting with s” and similar things.
  • I think Browse Catalog page needs an explanation, with examples of specific uses, to really make patrons (and me!) comfortable with it.
  • Maybe an explanation of what is being retrieved and why would help. Maybe post it in the white space area, to the right of the search terms so that patrons can give it another go.
  • I love that we have a browse the catalog feature now!  I don’t use it as much as I did when I was a library patron in New Orleans, but I have long missed having the subject browse feature available.  Now if we could just enhance it to expand the main subject heading to show subdivisions!
  • There could be more white space between the lines in the list of results. I also think we could show more results than 10 results to the page.
  • Browsing by series takes a really long time to load. Also, as already discussed, there are a lot of issues for searching/browsing by series. I am curious what fields are being pulled for the browse list. (???) The results are so unhelpful — browsing for Harry Potter or “vampire” provides good examples of how problematic it can be.

Topic 6: My Account Screens

  • Look and Feel:
    • Very basic, could use more color/graphics.
  • Login Screen:
    • Gray box crowded / squished vertically, too much white space to right. Add more white space between lines.
    • “Please enter the following information” before “Library Card Number or Username” is extraneous.
    • The “forget password” is tiny – easy to miss and should be more prominent.
    • Make font size larger for tips below fields (Please type the entire card number…. If this is your first time logging in…”
    • Could use explanation that the username is something the user can set up as an alternative to a barcode.
    • Questions section could be reworded, giving the option to try the FAQ, or search the PINES page for helpful info, or call the local library (with link to find your library).
  • Forgot Your Password:
    • Layout is confusing – should indicate that you enter your barcode OR user name, not both as it implies.
    • IF a patron has not set a username, isn’t their barcode the username by default? Why are two boxes needed here, if not needed to login?
    • Improve white space between lines.
  • Account Summary:
    • Account Summary title below Account Summary tab is unnecessarily duplicated.
    • The summary info (items currently checked out, items currently on hold, items ready for pickup) is already at the top of the screen so unnecessary.
    • Grey box with total fines is not necessary. Fines total could display under the fines tab, above the fine details.
    • Would be useful to display account expiration date.
    • “Items Currently on Hold” can be a little confusing since it is not necessarily clear that the holds are not ready for pickup. Perhaps use “All holds” and “Available holds” rather than “Current holds” and “Ready for pickup”?
  • Items Checked Out:
    • Unnecessary title duplication since it’s already on the tab title.
    • Layout – there is a lot of white space to the left, but none underneath the gray box.
    • Would be useful to include the format (video, book, etc.)
    • Font is small – would be easier to read if larger.
    • Gray “Current Items Checked Out” tab is redundant – do not understand its purpose, clicking on it simply reloads the same info. (Possible to hide some of the display options since we don’t store checkout history?)
    • For the grey “Current Items Checked Out” tab to make sense, it seems we need some sort of line. (Of course, having no other subtabs, it seems unnecessary altogether.)
    • Gray question mark does not do anything when clicked.
    • Make it more clear that there is a maximum of 2 renewals available on most items (less on some, and that if someone else has a hold on an item, it will not allow the renewal).
    • Perhaps link to fines info as well.
    • Currently if you click on the author’s name from the items checked out list, it will search by author… which is confusing… all links on this page should take the patron to the record of the item they have out.
  • Holds:
    • Unnecessary title duplication since it’s already on the tab title.
    • Gray “Items on Hold” tab is redundant – do not understand its purpose, clicking on it simply reloads the same info.
    • Gray question mark does not do anything when clicked.
    • I am not a fan of all the lists looking so different. Not sure what can be done about this – maybe we can remove the format icon? Also, maybe Title and author fields can be combined such as done on the items out screen. 
    • With the items out and holds lists, we could use a thicker white line between each record…more like the table formatting that appears on the “account preferences” page.
    • The headers could be centered instead of left justified.
  • Account Preferences:
    • Unnecessary title duplication since it’s already on the tab title.
    • Overall – layout could be improved, too much space between columns makes it hard to scan.
    • Address vs Pending Address – what is pending address?
    • Use “Change Password,” “Change Username,” and “Change Email” instead of just “Change.”
    • Notification Preferences – Can these settings all be on a single “Account Preferences” page rather than so many different tabs?
    • Search and History Preferences – Gray question mark does not do anything when clicked.
    • My Lists Preferences – Needs explanation of what lists are for.
    • Personal Information – Add expiration date of account with link to info about how to renew.
    • Notification Preferences – On the “Search and History Preferences” and “My List Preferences” tab, there is the message “Ensure your account has a valid email so that we can notify you…” – I think this should also be on the “Notification Preferences” tab.
  • Lists:
    • Needs explanation of what lists are for and how to use them. Some explanation of how call # is selected.
    • Maybe “Create New List” could become a button that opens a pop-up window with input fields? This box really does dominate the page.”
    • “Share This List” and “Share” wording could be changed to something like “Make Public” since the word Share usually now means send by email or post on facebook, etc.
    • Email option much needed.
    • Print option much needed.
    • Needs explanation of CSV (with “Download CSV”). Maybe change to “Download Spreadsheet”?
    • Need explanation of what “Make default list” does.
    • Once I open a list, everything on the page becomes difficult to read – the formatting is a mess.
    • The section that includes “Sort list items by” and “Name” and “Description” is not aligned and confusing – perhaps put on different lines, move sort option closer to the list itself.
    • When editing notes, the Save Notes box needs to be somewhere that makes more sense (currently it appears at the bottom of the Call Number column).
    • It would be great if one could add notes to an item at the same time as adding it to a list.
    • The buttons for the lists should line up.
    • The Format column seems unnecessary.
    • On the “Actions for these items” dropdown it still uses the “bookbag” terminology.
    • Giant gray box overpowers lists of titles.
    • Gray question mark does not do anything when clicked.
    • Line up the buttons for the lists – looks messy.
    • Would be nice to have “First Page/Last Page” options along with “Next Page/Previous Page.”
    • Would like to be able to open list in full screen instead of expand portion of list in middle of other lists.
    • When list is expanded, it’s visually confusing what the screen is displaying – could be clearer.

Update

Many of these changes were integrated as customizations into the Evergreen 2.7.2 upgrade January 2015. Other suggestions were added to an ongoing wishlist for future development projects.

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