[Web4lib] Custom search box question

[Nicholas Bennyhoff]

That might be a possibility. It would give some of the functionality we
need, at least. But, unless there's a way to construct the search that I'm
not familiar with (which is very possible), doing that could leave the user
finding a lot of results that aren't in their local database, depending on
their location and the search they run.

On a book that's not super common, I found that all but the first result on
the first page weren't in our local OPAC. On a more common title, say a
best-seller, all the results on the first page except the local university
are in our database. So, while it's a possible stopgap option, it's not
exactly what we'd like to do.

We're also exploring the possibility of having a custom WorldCat scope to
include holdings of all 4 databases done by OCLC (likely for a fee, of
course), but haven't heard back yet on whether that will be doable.



Nick

-----
Nicholas T. Bennyhoff
Technology Development Manager
Lewis & Clark Library System
Edwardsville, IL 62025
(618) 656-3216 ext.106
nicholasbennyhoff at lcls.org



On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 8:18 AM, Robert Balliot <rballiot at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I was able to connect to your link. But, could you embed a geographically
> restricted WorldCat search along with three separate links to the disparate
> systems until there is a uniform OPAC solution?  That way you would have a
> fairly good collective search  - along with all of the inherent strengths of
> the OPACs.
>
> R. Balliot
> http://oceanstatelibrarian.com
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 9:04 AM, Nicholas Bennyhoff <
> nicholasbennyhoff at lcls.org> wrote:
>
>> Our library system is about to merge with 3 others. In this new system,
>> there will (for a while, at least), be 4 separate OPACs from different
>> ILSs.
>> I've been trying to develop a single search box that will send a keyword
>> search to one of the OPACs, selected with a drop-down menu.
>>
>> I have the basics, but the searches aren't completing correctly in any of
>> them.
>>
>> One of the wrinkles is that there are 3 different ILSs involved. One OPAC
>> is
>> Innovative's Millennium WebPAC Pro, two are SirsiDynix Horizon, and one is
>> Dynix Classic.
>>
>> I have the code to do a search box that will search the Millennium and
>> Dynix
>> Classic OPACs using a drop-down to select different indexes in those
>> OPACs,
>> and I might have it for the Horizon as well - if not, it shouldn't be hard
>> to get.
>>
>> I was just wondering if anyone has attempted something similar.
>>
>> Here's a link to the test box in our Millennium staging port, so you can
>> see
>> what I've done so far:
>>
>> http://webcat.lcls.org:2082/search
>>
>> Any ideas or assistance would be appreciated.
>>
>>
>> Nick
>>
>> -----
>> Nicholas T. Bennyhoff
>> Technology Development Manager
>> Lewis & Clark Library System
>> Edwardsville, IL 62025
>> (618) 656-3216 ext.106
>> nicholasbennyhoff at lcls.org
>> _______________________________________________
>> Web4lib mailing list
>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>>
>>
>