Library catalogues and frames

[Justin R Ervin]

> > 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), [...] 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).
Walter, et al.:
We've considered doing this and I've developed a prototype, which is 
located at http://www.uncg.edu/lib/frames/. A click on an option to the 
right produces the appropriate screen on the left. Searches performed on 
the right produce results in the same frame. BTW, the screens which appear 
on the right are the actual screens currently used by our catalog and they 
perform real searches. The menu on the left was essentially lifted from 
our library's current main web page. The only thing I had to do was 
arrange the frames and work out the targets.

This project has been put on the back burner for now, in favour of more 
pressing items. I'm still a little squeamish about implementing this 
relatively new feature into a resource so essential as our catalog, as I 
know users with slower computers and older browsers could very well have 
trouble with frames.
=================Justin R Ervin==================
Computing Support Technician I
Jackson Library Electronic Information Resources, UNCG
jrervin at uncg.edu                 http://www.uncg.edu/~jrervin/