Author: Kathryn Brew

Newsletter #4 – Vega Discover Updates, Summer Edition

Hello everyone! If you are wondering why you haven’t heard from us, we have had no real updates to bring you over the last few weeks, as Innovative has been working on some deep dives with e-resources integration. This week, we do have some new developments in Vega Discover to share.

While the pace may seem slow, there is progress, and we are working to create a catalog that is revolutionary! With your help, we will build a catalog that is consortia-friendly, has an interface that exposes all types of resources, and is embodied in a unified and intuitive platform that patrons will find both useful and engaging at once. The platform will support policies and parameters that not only leverage our shared collections, but also successfully manage efficiencies and respect our local policies. Our work ensures that, from the ground up, our vision is part of the development and consortia are not an afterthought shoehorned into a product that is fully baked.

There are big things to come over the next few months and into 2023. MHLS will be a test site for consortia e-resource integration, particularly with Hoopla and OverDrive advantage accounts. Innovative is also working on the Vega LX Starter Kit, previously called “Connect.” The Vega LX Starter Kit will change how we send notices from Sierra and manage online registration. It will be featured in our Fall Sierra user group meeting. This will not be available to sites of our size or complexity until Spring of 2023, but we are angling to have test access sooner.

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“New” confusion

Observation: The word “date” is used in the facets and sort-by menu to help filter search results. It refers to publication date, although that is not specified. “New Materials” is also used, to refer to cataloging date. It is not intuitive for patrons to understand what these terms mean. Using labels like “release date” and “new to the library” may work better.

Additionally, when searching or filtering by New Materials (cataloging date), the roll-up logic means that even if a patron filters to only one format, if the work has been recently cataloged in any format, the result will still be returned. This could be very confusing. If the patron doesn’t care about eBooks and has already set a facet to limit to the format book, the results should not include entries where the selected format does not contain a new bib record. It will look like the facet isn’t working. 

Reported: 05/15/2022, updated 06/21/2022

Status: MHLS may be able to change the labels for these facets to make them clearer and more informative.

Resolution: TBD

Newsletter #3 – Vega Pilot Welcomes Mahopac, and Recent Updates

Good morning. Welcome to another round up of recent happenings in the Mid-Hudson Library System Vega pilot project, including release notes from the developers. As always, if you have any questions or thoughts, you can send them to this group (mhls-vega@googlegroups.com) or techsupport@midhudson.org, or you can always email Laurie or me directly.

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Hyphen logic

Observation: “I tried to look up the new David Sedaris book Happy-Go-Lucky in each catalog. My exact search was ‘Happy Go Lucky Sedaris.’ In Encore, the correct title was the first result. In Vega, the correct title was the 9th result. Why was Encore more accurate than Vega in this instance?”

It looks like Vega treats hyphenated phrases as one word. In this case, it does not think that the words “happy,” “go,” and “lucky” are in the title because it reads “happy-go-lucky” as one distinct word.

Reported: 06/02/2022

Status: We will report the issue to iii.

Resolution: TBD

Newsletter #1 – Welcome to the Vega discussion group

Welcome!

This new mailing list will be used during the rest of the Vega pilot project and into our soft launch period. It is a place for you to get a sense of what others are thinking about, be updated by MHLS on intel from Innovative (iii), and talk about Vega. This list is just for the reviewers, and it is an open forum.

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Series titles issue

Observation: With the addition of series links in Vega, there is now the issue that publisher-specific or format-specific series names are being pulled from one bib record and shown for the entire roll-up. These series are more like collections and often apply to only one particular edition instead of the entire work. The series link should show a series name that is true for the entirety of the work, not one particular manifestation.

Additionally, this sometimes leads to a publisher series being displayed for a work and superseding the name of an actual bibliographic series. Patrons may benefit from links to both kinds of series, but they are more likely to want and expect a link to other works in a serialized story.

Not only is this inaccurate at the roll-up level, but we believe that it is not patron-friendly.

Reported: 04/11/2022

Status: MHLS has reported the issue to Innovative and is investigating whether cataloging changes can help differentiate collections from actual series.

Resolution: TBD

This book is part of the Kinsey Millhone Mystery series, but the "G.K. Hall large print book series" tag is preferred in the roll up.

Order and arrangement of the ‘Refine Results’ sidebar filters

Observation: Some opinions about the arrangement of the sidebar so far include:

  • Location should be near the top. Staffers using the platform often need to search for materials within the building as a patron wants to walk away with a book today, and it is awkward to try to limit by location.
  • Location should be organized alphabetically.
  • Format should be organized alphabetically.

Reported: 12/2/2021, updated 4/21/2022

Status: Mid-Hudson is working on customizing the interface to rearrange the sidebar. Please let us know if you have opinions about the order, language/labels, or any other features of the sidebar by emailing techsupport@midhudson.org or filling out the feedback form.

Resolution: If changes can be made by MHLS, we will update soon.

The current sidebar filter order

Format and Locations currently ordered by most results

Kanopy links missing

Observation: Kanopy eVideo links are missing for some libraries. Clicking “Check Availability” will provide a list of links for each library, but the list is incomplete.

Reported: 04/12/2022

Status: Kanopy uses unique URLs for each library so each title has 40 separate links. “Check Availability” doesn’t even show them all, just 25 of them. One workaround could be to use a more generic message like “This title is available on Kanopy” or even suppressing Kanopy titles from the catalog until the problem is resolved.

Complete integration for Kanopy is planned but not yet implemented by Innovative.

Additionally, Kanopy has a small number of titles for which they don’t offer MARC records. There are 28,071 titles currently in the collection, but only 27,792 MARC records. It seems that Criterion titles, among others, are not provided.

Resolution: TBD.

Kanopy links, not displaying all 40 libraries