Library Search - Update for Library Staff 12/18/2020

Owned by Cynthia Schwarz
Dec 18, 2020
2 min read

Article bookmark sunsetting

Last summer, our article index was updated by Ex Libris from the Primo Central Index to the Central Discovery Index. As outlined before, we had had repeated bugs beyond our control related to article bookmarks, which was made worse by this transition. The Discovery Oversight Group, with input from the Library Search project team, decided to retire the article bookmarks at the end of the Fall 2020 semester. Patrons have not been able to add new bookmarks since August 2020. After this release, they will not be able to view existing article bookmarks using Library Search, though they will still have the option to retrieve a text file of their article record URL’s on the Bookmarks page.

My Account Login Page

On the My Account Login page, there are links for two options to log into your account. The first link is for university affiliates who have an AccessNet username and password. The second link is for registered PA borrowers who have an account in Alma, but do not have an AccessNet username and password. The labels for these two links were misleading and caused confusion for our patrons. After some review and discussion, we updated the link labels to more accurately reflect which populations should use each link.

The new wording for the links is: 

  • Students, faculty, staff and registered alumni

  • Registered PA borrowers

Call number facet, filter and advanced search options

Earlier this fall, the Library Search project team implemented additional features that allow patrons to filter and sort by Library of Congress (LOC) classification. We also added an option to the advanced search to allow for searching specifically by LOC classification range. These features can currently be previewed on Library Search, but require patrons to add a specific parameter to the URL in order to view these features. With the upcoming release, these features will be available to all patrons and will not require the additional URL parameter.

Ebook title records removed from Articles results

Many librarians noticed that ebook records were more prominently appearing as Articles results, which was confusing for both patrons and staff. To remedy this, we have removed title-level ebook records from the Articles results, most of which are already available through the Books & Media search.  Whenever available, ebook chapter-level results and other related content types will still appear as Articles results.