Evaluate New SIRSI WebCat Interface at www.sirsi.com

[Susan Nielsen]

PLEASE EXCUSE DUPLICATE MAILINGS.

To coincide with the first Beta release of the new Frames-based WebCat
(Unicorn'98.1), a demonstration system and questionnaire has been posted on
SIRSI's corporate website at http://www.sirsi.com.  In addition to
a product specific evaluation, SIRSI hopes this review process will serve as
a mechanism for community-wide brainstorming on the future of web catalogs.
Community discussion on topics such as ADA workstation elements, encryption
of user data, discussion of outsourcing vs. convergence, and html-bookmarks   
to catalog records is being encouraged.  It is our hope that this endeavor
will result in an in-depth profile of the ideal interface for a library web
catalog, and will confirm WebCat development efforts into the next release.

The information gathered through the questionnaire will be presented as the
conclusion to the paper "Observation and Anticipation: SIRSI's Development of
the WebCat Interface", at the Integrated Online Library Systems (IOLS98)
conference this May.  Results will also be available post-conference on SIRSI's
website.

Please take a few moments to browse our new Frames-based WebCat for either
or all three of our Unicorn systems (Ecole for K-12 Libraries; Oasis for
Public Libraries).  Your FEEDBACK can be sent through a button of the same
name from within the WebCat(s), or by following the link to the "Survey".


                   FEATURES OF WEBCAT, UNICORN98:

               http://www.sirsi.com/Demos/demos.html

*A Framed OPAC with navigational Table of Contents, ToolBar, and Search        
 Results frames.
*Preferences for the user to dynamically customize the opac display (to
 turn of the individual frames and change various image sets).
*Limit Search capabilities to provide the user with the original search
 form, with string, at the bottom of a keyword hitlist.
*A flattened search interface with a more web-inherent design, including
 tabbed access tabs to alternate search forms and a quick search-as form.
*Target Window functionality to load web resources in an opac-child
 browser window.
*Four new image groups (toolbar, table of contents, and search buttons; each
 with their own variety of image sets)to accomodate personal user preference.


Thank you for your time and consideration.        



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* Susan Nielsen, Product Analyst                           susann at sirsi.com *
* SIRSI Corporation                                        tel 205/922-9820 *
* 689 Discovery Drive                                      fax 800/239-3239 *
* Huntsville  AL  35806                                    fax 205/922-9818 *
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