access to text-based OPAC from home page

[Sheryl Dwinell]

>From our library web pages we have links to our catalog, which currently is
text-based.  We won't have a Webpac for another year.  A complaint we
received in the past is that when folks would try to make the link, they
would get an error message if they didn't have a telnet app set up for
their browser. They would write to us and say they couldn't access our
catalog and we'd explain about telnet, etc. etc.  So, on our new home page
we put the words 'via telnet' after the name of our opac, with "telnet" a
hotlink to a page of info about accessing text-based opacs and where to
find telnet apps for free on the Web.  Some people don't like this because
they figure people won't bother clicking that link and want all hotlinks to
our opac to go to this explanatory page.  However, others want to be taken
right into our opac from PCs within the library since telnet apps are set
up on all PCs in the library and they don't want to bother with the
intermediary step.  So...to try and make this long story short...I have
thought about making a script that would direct people within the libraries
to go directly into the catalog, while those outside the libraries would
get the explanatory page. Thus, addressing (hopefully) both sets of
concerns.  I am curious if anyone has done anything like this for their
library home page?

Thanks,



Sheryl Dwinell * Cataloger/DBM Librarian/Webmaster
Memorial Library * Marquette University
P.O. Box 3141 * Milwaukee, WI 53201-3141
414-288-3406 * dwinells at vms.csd.mu.edu