Libraries: Research, Instruction, and Outreach Committee : Minutes November 20, 2008

11/20/2008
Minutes November 20, 2008

The meeting was called to order at 9:00 am on November 10, 2008.

The committee discussed the spell check feature of the Aleph opac, now in the test database. RIO members felt that the feature works well enough to implement, but would like information about any mechanism to add to the vocabulary and also more information on just how the system is searching for misspelled words. RIO would also like to have the error message displayed more prominently. Specifically, we would like to:
1. Change the text color to red for the words:
“Did you mean to search for _____”
(Use the same red as in the initial article examples for a title begins… search.)
2. Make the font size smaller on the “Search Results” page:
Have the font size the same as on the example above.
Bryan will send these comments and requests to Jan Jourdain when the committee has signed off on them.

Beth Lang requested that the “Connect from” message on Ebrary records add the word “College” for each of the four colleges so that UMass students do not think that they have access to titles that are at Amherst College. RIO members think that there is a character limit for that message so that we would not be able to make that change. Bryan will check on this.

Plans for a January RIO conference were discussed. Thursday afternoon on Jan. 8th from 2 to 4 at Hampshire is the date and library applications of web 2.0 technology will be the theme. We settled on a “lightening round” format, short (5 minute) presentations on a range of applications, two presenters from each institution. We will finalize plans at our next meeting.

Both Amherst and UMass records will soon be available to the 5 college community on World Cat Local. Amherst implementation is set for June 2009. RIO looked at:
http://amherstcollege.worldcat.org
and
http://umassamherst.worldcat.org
to get some idea of what will be coming.

Next RIO meeting will be on Dec. 8th at 9 am at Hampshire.

Bonnie Vigeland
Meeting recorder


	11/20/2008 Minutes November 20, 2008 The meeting was called to order at 9:00 am on November 10, 2008. The committee discussed the spell check feature of the Aleph opac, now in the test database. RIO members felt that the feature works well enough to implement, but would like information about any mechanism to add to the vocabulary and also more information on just how the system is searching for misspelled words. RIO would also like to have the error message displayed more prominently. Specifically, we would like to: 1. Change the text color to red for the words: “Did you mean to search for _____” (Use the same red as in the initial article examples for a title begins… search.) 2. Make the font size smaller on the “Search Results” page: Have the font size the same as on the example above. Bryan will send these comments and requests to Jan Jourdain when the committee has signed off on them. Beth Lang requested that the “Connect from” message on Ebrary records add the word “College” for each of the four colleges so that UMass students do not think that they have access to titles that are at Amherst College. RIO members think that there is a character limit for that message so that we would not be able to make that change. Bryan will check on this. Plans for a January RIO conference were discussed. Thursday afternoon on Jan. 8th from 2 to 4 at Hampshire is the date and library applications of web 2.0 technology will be the theme. We settled on a “lightening round” format, short (5 minute) presentations on a range of applications, two presenters from each institution. We will finalize plans at our next meeting. Both Amherst and UMass records will soon be available to the 5 college community on World Cat Local. Amherst implementation is set for June 2009. RIO looked at: http://amherstcollege.worldcat.org and http://umassamherst.worldcat.org to get some idea of what will be coming. Next RIO meeting will be on Dec. 8th at 9 am at Hampshire. Bonnie Vigeland Meeting recorder