Towards the end of last term things progressed rapidly with 'Locate' as we moved towards a soft-launch date of 11th January 2011. Some of the things we worked on included:
- Creating a front page for Locate using the feedback and results from the focus group undertaken earlier in the year - the aims were to make sure it wasn't too 'wordy' and to have links out to further information rather than have it all on the page. At the moment there is quite a lot of 'explanation' on the page to let end-users know what Locate is, and what it is replacing. We hope to remove some of this as the product becomes more integrated into the library. The focus group also suggested that they would like links to other support services and we have managed to incorporate these in to the front page in the boxes handily provided in the original Primo front page template.
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| Locate Front Page |
- We have made small changes within the availability/holdings lists to make sure that they looked clean and clear for end-users. This involved quite a bit of trial and error, but eventually we managed to get to a screen that provided essential details in the brief results view, and more detailed information in the larger full-screen' view. This was tricky as we had to consider all resource types, and some terminology doesn't fit across journals, books and media items consistently!
- We have also worked on creating an 'OPAC-version' of Locate - which for us means adapting the interface so that it can be used on stand-alone OPAC machines on the subject floors so that both students and non-university members can search the library's holdings. This has involved a lot of work in 'locking-down' the machines and Locate so that access to external resources e.g. e-books and e-journals is restricted. We are almost there with the OPAC version, but we still have a ew things to work on before we release it to the students. Hopefully there will be one 'trial' Locate machine alongside our original OPAC over the next few months so that students can get a taster of what it will be like when we switch fully in the Summer.
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| OPAC Front Page |
We hope to continue posting updates over the next few months, including a link to the live version of Locate. We are also hoping to do some testing of Primo Central, and to gauge feedback from staff and students to Locate and Primo Central, which we can then use to make modifications before the launch in the Summer.
