LINKcat News

Cover art in LINKcat

LINKcat's cover art is a popular feature. It makes the catalog more attractive and helps users figure out when they are looking at the correct (or incorrect) record. Here are answers to some questions about cover art and LINKcat.

Where does the cover art in LINKcat come from?

The cover art, along with Tables of Contents, Excerpts, Publisher's Weekly Reviews, and Author Notes, is provided through a subscription to Syndetic Solutions. LINKcat pulls the cover art image from the Syndetic servers when a LINKcat web page is opened. If no cover art is available, then a generic image displays. 

LINKcat is displaying the wrong cover art. How can we fix this?

Occasionally, you or a patron may notice that the wrong cover art image is displayed in LINKcat. When this happens, please report the problem to SCLS staff using the Koha problems and questions form. Include the problem title and bib number. SCLS staff will verify that the correct ISBN and/or UPC numbers are in the bib record and, if necessary, report the cover art problem to Syndetics. Syndetics staff will then replace the incorrect image. The problem is usually fixed within a week.

One of my library's patrons published a book. Can we add the book's cover art to LINKcat?

SCLS staff cannot add cover art to LINKcat, but we can ask Syndetics to add the cover art to its database. After Syndetics adds the cover art, the new image will display in LINKcat. If you have a cover art image from a local author, filmmaker, etc., that you wish to add to LINKcat, please contact SCLS staff using the Koha problems and questions form. The item must have either an ISBN or UPC number. Mary Davidson from ORE recently contacted Syndetics about adding cover art for the film of a local filmmaker. Syndetics added the cover art within four days and it now displays in LINKcat. Thanks to Mary for her work and for her suggestion that this topic be included in a blog post.

New This Week list available April 1 in LINKcat

On April 1, we will launch the New This Week list. This list will show all bibliographic records added to Koha in the last seven days. The list will change daily, as new bibliographic records are added. The link to the New This Week list will be in the "blue bar," next to the link for the Don't Miss Lists. It will also be linked from the Don't Miss Lists web page.

The New This Week list allows patrons to more easily find the latest titles as they are added to Koha. It will not replace the Don't Miss Lists.

The New This Week list will show all bibliographic records in the order that they have been added to Koha. Placement of records may change as they are overlaid with full MARC records.

Patrons can use the facets on the left side of the screen to limit by format, author, library, etc. (Please note: BSE records will appear on the New This Week list, but they will not have all of the coding necessary to properly limit by format until they are overlaid by a full MARC record.)

New Owning Library facet

A new "Owning Library" facet is now available. The facet allows staff and patrons to limit by owning library, regardless of the item's status. The facet lists the library by code, not library name, so it's a feature that will be more useful to staff than patrons. However, it is available in both the PAC and staff client. At this time, we cannot limit it to the staff client, nor can we display the library's name instead of the library's code. It's the last facet listed in the "Refine your search" column.

Available on shelf facet in LINKcat PAC and staff client

The new Available on shelf facet allows patrons and staff to limit to items that are currently available in the library. The facet uses the item's Current Library and excludes items that are checked out, in transit, or waiting on the hold shelf, as well as items with one of the Not for loan, Lost, or Damaged statuses. Accordingly, if your library owns two items that appear in a list of search results, but one of those items is checked out, only the item that is not checked out will appear in the Available on shelf facet.

To generate a list of items owned by a particular library, regardless of status, use the Advanced Search and choose a library from the Location and availability drop-down list. To limit the search to only items available on shelf click the Only items currently available for loan or reference checkbox.

 

4.14 Upgrade Scheduled

We are pleased to announce that the 4.14 upgrade to LibLime Koha has been scheduled for the evening of October 29 with the changes available to libraries on the morning of October 30.  The primary change with this upgrade is the switch to the Solr search engine which will provide improvements to searching and response time when adding new bibliographic records.  Amy Gannaway has alread posted on the improvements that will be coming with with Solr.  We are working on a complete Release Notes document and will make it available soon.  We may also ask for volunteers to do one more round of testing prior to the release date once most of the remaining bugs already identified are fixed.

I strongly encourage everyone to try out the new search engine in the PAC sandbox.  Amy has created a separate document with searching tips for the new search engine.

 

 

Ideas for LINKcat slideshow slides

In June we launched a new "slideshow" for the home page of LINKcat. The slides change monthly and include information about new features, databases, Don't Miss Lists, search tips, planned downtime, and other useful LINKcat information.

We are always looking for new slideshow ideas. We've created a Google document where you can share your ideas for useful LINKcat tips to be included in the slideshow. Please keep in mind that the tips have to be communicated in a short sentence and should include a visual representation. Complex ideas could be broken down into separate parts so each part could be communicated on a separate slide.

Removing "My Fines" tab from patron PAC account display

The PAC subCommittee made a recommendation to hide the "My Fines" tab in the PAC patron display because the tab led directly to the patron's Account screen, which displays all resolved and unresolved fines and charges in a patron's record.  The Circulation Services subCommittee agreed with the recommendation, requesting future development that will point the "My Fines" tab to a patron's Pay Fines screen, which only displays unresolved fines or charges.  The ILS Committee approved the recommendation and we will be making the change on Monday, October 8, 2012.

Here is an example of the new screen in the PAC, which can be seen when logged into the sandbox PAC.  Patrons are still able to access their balance from the Fines tab on the My Summary screen.  This tab only displays when patrons have unpaid fines or charges.

If patrons click on the balance owed, the hyperlink will take them to their full Account screen.

Please make certain all of your staff are aware of this change so they can assist patrons as needed.

Koha indexing switch to Solr

The next upgrade to Koha will be a major re-write of Koha's indexing platform. The new software is now available for testing in the SCLS Koha sandbox (both staff client and PAC). If you would like to try it out, you can log into the sandbox using the same login and password that you use for Koha production. 

The sandbox is a work in progress and additional fixes are still being added. After we have an upgrade date, we will post full release notes on the ILS web site.

Why are we switching to Solr?

Solr is an open-source search indexing platform that is faster and offers more flexibility than Koha's current indexing platform (Zebra). It fixes a number of searching bugs and will offer us the ability to create browse indexes in the future.

What are the new features and bug fixes that are coming with Solr?

Here is a list of fixed bugs and new features:

• Indexing of new bibs and items: With Solr, new bib records and item records will be indexed in approximately 5 minutes, instead of several hours. Edits to existing bib records and items will also index in approximately 5 minutes. (SCLS Support Ticket 39738) 
• Improvements to relevancy ranking: Exact main title (245$a) matches are ranked before a main title with the same words, but that is not an exact match. Also, English-language books continue to be ranked above AV and foreign language materials. For example, a title search for The passage will return titles with that exact main title ranked at the top of the list. These titles will be ranked about titles such as Spirit of the passage and The passage of power, which have the same words but are not exact matches. Please note that exact matches are prioritized, so a search for The passage will rank a record titled The passage before a record titled The passage : a novel. In some cases this will cause an AV record to be ranked above a book record. For example, if a record for a book contains a sub-title but the AV record does not have that sub-title, then the AV record will be ranked above the book record, because Koha will rank the main title first, and then rank the English-language books. Finally, these relevancy ranking improvements have been applied to both the title and keyword indexes, as well as the Cataloging search in the staff client.
• Problems with Author search: The author searches in both the staff client and PAC are now working correctly. Previously, the Author searches in the drop-down box on the main page of the PAC and in the advanced search of the staff client were searching title fields as well as author fields. (SCLS Support Ticket 41891)
• Facets work for entire search results list: Facets now include results from the records in the entire search results list. Previously, the facets were generated based on only the current page of search results. (SCLS Support Ticket 40742)
• Searching of titles and authors with diacritics: You can now search titles and authors even if there is a diacritic in the title or author fields. Previously, these searches were failing. (SCLS Support Ticket 40822) 
• Using ampersands in searches: Using an ampersand in the search no longer causes problems with browsing search results. Previously, if you used an ampersand in a search, then you lost the search results when you went to the second page. (SCLS Support Ticket 42602)
• Keyword searching in staff client for titles that are numbers: Using quotes allows you to do a keyword search in the staff client for titles that are numbers. For example, search “1493” to find the title 1493 : uncovering the new world Columbus created. (SCLS Support Ticket 41768) 
• Re-sorting the search results list in the staff client: Previously, re-sorting the search results list did not always work. Instead, you were taken to the Advanced Search page. This only happened when you used an equal sign in the search (e.g. au=john grisham). Because you now must use a colon when you are using a search operator, this problem is no longer an issue (e.g. au:john grisham). (SCLS Support Ticket 39838)
• Punctuation in titles: Searches that include titles with punctuation, such as colons, slashes, exclamation points, etc. no longer fail. Sometimes you may need to use quotes around the title, but you should not need to strip punctuation.

Are there any new search tips?

Yes, Solr offers more tools for refining searches:

• Use double quotes to search an exact phrase in any index. (Single quotation marks are ignored). For example, searching "lord of the rings" will only return records that contain that exact phrase. (NOTE: We will no longer have separate phrase indexes for title, author and subject. These indexes have been replaced by the double quotes feature).
• Place your search terms in parenthesis to return search results on words in any order. For example, searching (lord of the rings) will return records that contain all of those words, but not necessarily in that order.
• Use a question mark for single character right-hand truncation, for example to find nap or naps, search nap?.
• Use a star for multiple character right-hand truncation, for example to find nap or naps or napping, search nap*.
• Use a question mark or star for center truncation, for example to find woman or women, search wom?n [single character] or wo*n [multiple character].
• Use a tilde combined with double quotes to make two terms appear within a certain number of characters of each other, for example "roman empire"~10 would search for the two words within 10 characters of each other.
• You can use the following search operators when using the keyword index to narrow your search. You do not have to use the search operators when using the keyword index – they are tools that are available but they are not mandatory. You must use a colon (:) between the search operator and the search terms, (e.g. ti:the help):
  • ti: (title)
  • au: (author)
  • su: (subject)
  • isbn: (isbn)
  • issn: (issn)
  • biblionumber: (biblionumber)

Are there any known bugs in the sandbox that aren't in production?

Yes, there are some bugs in the sandbox that are not present in production. These bugs will be fixed before we upgrade:

• Library limit (Location and Available limit) in staff client doesn't work. Ok in PAC.
• When searching ISBN-13, ISBN-10 is not found (and vice versa).
• Clicking "more" link in facets column generates error in staff client. Ok in PAC.

There may be more bugs present in the sandbox (that are not already in production). See the next section for information on helping out with testing.

How can I help with testing Solr?

Fill out the Solr testing checklist. If you cannot finish the entire checklist, that's fine, just do what you can and leave the other questions blank. Please complete any testing by Monday, October 1.

You can also report problems that you encounter in the sandbox using the Koha problems and questions form. 

 

Enhanced content from LibraryThing live in LINKcat

New enhanced content from LibraryThing is now live in LINKcat. We did a trial of these enhancements in June and the overall response from staff and patrons was positive. 

The new features include Reviews from LibraryThing users and from users at other libraries who have the LibraryThing enhancements. LINKcat patrons can add their own reviews as well. Series and Awards are also included, so the series information will display on a record for a title that is part of a series. Award lists (such as Newbery, Caldecott, etc.) are displayed on those titles that have won awards.

Another part of the enhancement package is Similar Items. This displays as a separate tab and includes titles that are similar. A Tag browser also displays in a separate tab and features tags that have been assigned to the title by LibraryThing users. At this time, LINKcat users cannot add additional tags. 

New LINKcat reports

New LINKcat reports are now available. The reports provide statistics for both LINKcat Mobile and LINKcat.info. The reports will be posted near the beginning of each month.

LINKcat Mobile

The LINKcat mobile report provides data on Traffic, Types of Use, and Devices. The Traffic statistics tell us how many users used LINKcat Mobile, the average amount of time they spent there, and the average amount of pages viewed per visit. The Traffic section also gives data on the total number of pages and vists for the month. 

Types of Use tells us how many times the LINKcat Mobile app (for both Android and Apple devices) was used and how many times the LINKcat Mobile web site was used (m.linkcat.info).

The Devices section breaks down the use for each type of mobile device. The majority of LINKcat Mobile users acessed LINKcat Mobile via an Android or Apple device (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch).

LINKcat.info

The summary information in the LINKcat.info report is collected using Google Analytics. Data is for the home page of LINKcat only. This report provides information on the total number of visits and the average length of time for each visit. There is also information on the where users are coming from, including the country of origin and how users get to LINKcat. (e.g. Did a user get to LINKcat by directly typing www.linkcat.info? Or was a user referred through a link from a different web site?) Browser and mobile data are also included. 

You can access additional information from Google Analytics by logging into the Google Analytics account using the login and password posted on the LINKcat reports page.