[Web4lib] AJAX on library websites?

[Karen Harker]

I found the guesstimate service quite useful.  It was much, much faster
than I expected and just as fast, if not faster than executing the
search. In addition, I was able to refine the query so that I would get
the optimal number of results would appear.  I would like to see this
kind of service applied by the OPAC vendors, no matter how it is
programmed.
 
 
 
Karen R. Harker, MLS
UT Southwestern Medical Library
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX  75390-9049
214-648-8946
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/library/

>>> Ross Singer <ross.singer at library.gatech.edu> 12/17/2005 9:53 AM
>>>

Luke,

What is the intended utility of this service?  By the time I wait for 
the number of results to display, I could have performed the search on

my own.  It seems like allowing the user to perform the search, then 
offer alternatives to it in the result page seems like a better use of

resources.

Amy, we also have implemented a small bit of AJAX at Georgia Tech (I 
second Jeremy's point about using it sparingly and for specific 
purposes where 'stateliness' is justified -- I can't comment on whether

or not GT's implementation completely conforms to that).

We implemented it for our e-journal search:
http://www.library.gatech.edu/search_locate/electronic_journals.html
(start typing in the journal title field)
and our databases page:
http://www.library.gatech.edu/search_locate/databases.php
(search for databases field)

The e-journal service was first and is the more useful (it was easy to

set up the db one, so why not, was my rationale) and has proven to be 
quite popular.  An unintended (positive) side effect was exposure to 
items in our collection that users wouldn't otherwise know we own (with

25,000+ titles, there are more journals than our users -- or librarians

-- can keep up with).

It's simpler to implement on these services, since they don't change 
very much.  We cache the search results every month (since our journal

list really doesn't change until our knowledgebase is updated), so the

results are very fast (except, possibly, near the first of month).

Anyway, I am interested in other uses of AJAX, because it is delicate 
balance.

-Ross.

On Dec 16, 2005, at 11:20 PM, Luke Vilelle wrote:

> Hi, Amy, at Virginia Tech one of our systems gurus
> implemented AJAX into the OPAC. You can see it for
> yourself on the keyword search at
> http://addison.vt.edu. We've called it the Addison
> Guesstimate, and you can toggle it on or off
> underneath the search box.
>
> Not sure how many people actually see the AJAX work
> (we've gotten very little feedback on it), because you
> have to wait a 1/2-second after you've stopped typing
> before you see results, but it's pretty neat. An
> explanation of the feature is provided at
> http://addison.vt.edu/screens/help_index.html#guesstimate.
>
>
> Luke Vilelle.
>
> --- Amy M Ostrom <amostrom at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Web4libbers:
>>
>> Sorry for multiple emails.  I am wondering if anyone
>> else has been
>> following AJAX (asynchronous javascript and xml) and
>> is thinking about
>> implementing it somehow into their library design?
>> The University of
>> Wisconsin directory (
>> http://www.wisc.edu/directories/?name= ) is an
>> example, and using it I thought this new combination
>> of web tools could
>> be a great benefit to libraries.  Any insight or
>> examples would be
>> wonderful!  Thank you.
>>
>> In peace,
>>
>> Amy M Ostrom
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