We are pleased to announce that the new Prospector Encore discovery
interface has launched this morning. Below is FAQ that was sent last week.
Please share this with your staff as appropriate.
George
New Prospector Discovery Interface
For more information
contact George Machovec ([log in to unmask])
or Rose Nelson ([log in to unmask])
The new discovery
interface for Prospector has been released. It is using the Encore software
from Innovative Interfaces Inc. and will allow users a new and improved
searching experience with Prospector. The old Prospector interface will also
remain in place and you will have a choice of how you may want to link from your
local WebPAC to Prospector. If your library is running its own local discovery
interface (e.g. Encore, AquaBrowser, VuFind) you will most certainly want to
offer pass through searching to the new Prospector Encore interface. However,
if you are running a classic WebPAC you can choose where you want Prospector
pass through searches to go – either classic Prospector WebPAC or the new
Prospector interface.
Below is an FAQ to
answer some of the most common questions. However, please feel free to ask
additional questions if they are not covered below or additional clarification
is needed.
1.
What is URL of the new Prospector Discovery service?
http://www.coalliance.org/prospector
This is the new Prospector launch page and we recommend that you use this
address for linking to the “top” of Prospector (i.e. not pass
through searches).
2.
Will the old Prospector service still be available?
Yes
the old Prospector WebPAC is still fully supported and will not change.
However, after August 18th we will redirect users who go to the http://prospector.coalliance.org to
the new launch page. To go to the old Prospector start page use http://prospector.coalliance.org/search~S0
3.
What will happen if the local library does nothing on
August 18th?
Your
pass through searches from your local OPAC will continue to work as they always
have. However, any links to the current top Prospector homepage will be
redirected to the new launch page.
4.
We are running a local instance of Encore for our
library. How do we pass through searches to the new Prospector Encore
discovery layer?
Contact
Innovative Interfaces Inc (III) and they can change your pass through searches
from your local Encore to the Prospector Encore discovery layer.
5. Where
do the book jackets come from in the new interface and why do many not appear?
The book jackets are pulled from
Amazon.com. It should be noted that Prospector has many older materials and
many specialized editions of materials (e.g. paperback, hardback, large print,
audio, video) so that book jackets often do not appear. However, we will show
them when possible. We will look at other sources for enhanced book jacket art
but at the present we do not have money in the budget for a commercial service
such as Syndetics or Content Café.
Feel free to copy and reuse any of
the new graphics from Prospector for linking purposes from your local site. We
also have clean .jpgs that we can send if you prefer, contact Rose Nelson at [log in to unmask]
7.
Summarize some of the advantages of the new interface
we can tout to our staff and users.
·
A clean modern
interface with an improved look and feel
·
New facets
allow searches to be filtered by format, language, year, location and other
elements. The old system did not support filtering by format and the other
filters were difficult to find and use.
·
Better
relevance ranking and “Did you mean?” functionality
·
The user does
not need to pick a search field as authors, titles and other keywords all work
very nicely in the single search box
·
Serials are
very easy to find since the relevance algorithm pushes them to the top of the
search results
8.
When should I use the old interface and what are key
missing features in the new environment?
·
If you want to do
advanced Boolean searches, specialized number searches or specific fielded
browses (e.g. subject headings browse, title browse) the old system should be
used
·
The “Find
More Resources” button in the old system which links out to WorldCat,
Google Books and eCommerce sites is only available in Prospector classic at
this time
·
The
“Request Article” button that directs users to link resolvers or
article finder forms at local sites is only available in Prospector classic at
this time
9.
On the new Prospector launch page there is a pull down
box with many different kinds of searches; why do some go to the new discovery
interface and others go to Prospector classic?
The
“keyword” search in the new launch page initiates a search in the
new discovery interface. It is optimized to handle title, author, subject and
other key terms in a highly-efficient single-index search and display
algorithm. However, all of the other searches in the launch page go to
specific indexes in the classic Prospector system. By putting them all on the
launch page, experienced users can start whatever type of search they want
without having to find the old system. Only the “keyword” search
launches the new discovery interface.
10.
Why does Requesting an item go to Prospector Classic?
Once
an item has been found in the new Prospector discovery layer and the user wants
to request it, the user will be routed to Prospector classic to complete their
request. The request process will take place in a new smaller window so that
the person can easily go back to the discovery layer. We hope that there may
be some future enhancement from Innovative to keep the user in the Encore
environment for the full request process. But this is not now the case.
11.
We are running on a non-Innovative discovery layer for
our local system (e.g. AquaBrowser, VuFind, locally developed Drupal) or we
want to pass searches from our classic WebPAC to the Prospector Encore
discovery layer. How can we construct stable URLs for pass through searches to
Prospector Encore?
a. Passing in a search term:
Use Prospector Encore server domain (e.g. encore.coalliance.org)
Replace {INSERT SEARCH TERM HERE} with your search term (e.g. art%20history
where %20 is encoding for a space; or you can also use a plus sign)
http://{encore.coalliance.org
/iii/encore/search}/C|S{INSERT SEARCH TERM HERE}|Orightresult|U1?lang=eng
b. Going directly to a record:
Use Prospector Encore server domain (e.g. encore.coalliance.org)
Replace {INSERT RECORD NUMBER HERE} with the record number, starting with the
record type indicator (e.g. b1401495 for a bib record, e1001265 for a resource
record)
http://{encore.coalliance.org
/iii/encore/record/C|R{INSERT RECORD NUMBER HERE}
c. Examples:
http://encore.coalliance.org/iii/encore/search/C|Sart+history|Orightresult|U1?lang=eng
(launches a keyword search)
http://encore.coalliance.org/iii/encore/record/C|Rb10658092
(goes to a particular record)
George
Machovec
Associate
Director
Colorado
Alliance of Research Libraries
3801
E. Florida, Suite 515
Denver,
CO 80210
(303)
759-3399 x.101
(303)
759-3363 (fax)