Searching E-Resources

[Melissa Just]

Our library is in the process of re-thinking how we present our extensive
list of e-resources.  We are transitioning from static to dynamic pages
and will be using ColdFusion.

What we would like to do is provide "guided" searching in the form of
three boxes/columns/levels of searching.

For example (and this is generalized, the details haven't been worked out
yet):

Column 1: A pull-down menu of options that separate resources by main
category (for us this might be Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Allied Health)

Column 2: A check box list of option by format including e-journals,
e-books, web sites, etc.

Columm 3: An option to enter a keyword to limit the search

So, a nursing student could choose to an option in column 1 only to view
all nursing resources, or limit the search in column 2 to look at a list
of all nursing e-journals, or really limit the search by adding her own
keyword "pediatrics" in column 3 and get nursing e-journals on pediatrics.

Does anyone know of sites (library or non-library) that are already doing
this to some degree?  We are interested in seeing what's already out there
so that we don't have to completely re-invent the wheel.  Or, are there
sites that you know of that use interesting methods for database-driven
e-resource searching?

Thanks for any examples you can provide!
-Melissa


Melissa L. Just, MLIS
Information Specialist
Norris Medical Library
University of Southern California
just at usc.edu