Library catalogues and frames

[Slavko Manojlovich]

Walter:
I just wanted to let you know that SIRSI is already working on a
frames-based version of their catalogue.  
Slavko Manojlovich
Memorial University Of Newfoundland

On Thu, 11 Dec 1997, Walter W. Giesbrecht wrote:

> Does anyone out there provide a frames-based approach to their 
> library catalogue, as opposed to the rest of their library website?
> 
> I have been asked to provide a frames-based interface to our library 
> catalogue (Sirsi's Webcat), after a number of users complained 
> about the number of "clicks" required to get around (e.g., if you 
> want to change from doing one type of search to another, it requires 
> three mouse clicks before you can enter your new search). What our 
> OPAC committee has asked for is a two-frame home page, with a 
> narrow frame along the left side that provides direct, one click 
> access to the different kinds of searches one might wish to do; the 
> larger frame is where all the action takes place. The search frame 
> disappears when it is no longer relevant (I hope).
> 
> I have certain misgivings about this, but I do what I'm asked to do 
> (some of the time, anyway). I've set up two possible approaches on 
> our test server. One option is as described above 
> 
> 	http://info.library.yorku.ca
> 
> and the other 
> 
> 	http://info.library.yorku.ca/index3.htm
> 
> puts a narrow "search" frame at the top edge of the screen instead 
> of the left, thereby avoiding having subsequent pages "squashed" into 
> a narrower frame. I'd appreciate some feedback as to which is the 
> better of the two. For comparison's sake, our current non-framed site 
> is at
> 
> 	http://www.library.yorku.ca
> 
> Thanks muchly for your opinions.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Walter W. Giesbrecht                        walterg at yorku.ca    
> York University Libraries          (416) 736-5639 ext. 77551
> North York, Ontario, Canada
>