Agenda

Guests: Jody Combs, Dale Poulter; New Member: Jodie Gambill (LITS)

Absent: Melinda Brown

• Options for a new display of the databases by subject (Jody/Dale)
• Databases and groupings for PRIMO's quicksets
• Acorn timeout page (Chris)

Minutes: Chris Benda

Options for a new display of the databases by subject: This topic derives from a discussion about how library databases be organized and displayed, a discussion which eventuated in wish list. In response to this wish list, Dale suggested that database information be put in MetaLib and exported to Primo. This has a variety of benefits, including location of database information in one place; the ability to weight databases; the ability to create categories and subcategories into which the databases could be slotted; the ability to generate an A-Z list of databases; and the ability to store databases to the e-shelf. In response to two other items on the wishlist, Dale indicated that generating subject guides might be possible with an open source solution and that a brief/full record display might satisfy the desire for the ability to toggle database descriptions on and off. Dale suggested that we might start looking at this option by importing some databases into Primo (on staging) to see how what he envisions actually works. That suggestion was greeted positively.

Databases and groupings for Primo’s quicksets: Currently, there are 45 databases in MetaLib, with a total of six quicksets. The DLSC is interested in having the RSC look at the quicksets and determine what kinds of groupings would be useful and what databases should be in each grouping. There are evidently several ways by which MetaLib can search/deal with databases, including XML complete; XML simple; Z39.50; search & link; and link out. Sue will send around a list of the contents of the current quicksets; the members of the RSC will respond to this list with groupings that make sense to them. Subgroups will then be set up to look into the content of the quickset, with a goal of next semester for having all of them available for public use (though new quicksets can always be added along the way).

Acorn timeout page: Chris brought the following RMS request to RSC: “When Webcat times out and you click the 'OK' link (on a page that says 'Session has timed out. Please click OK to start a new Acorn session'), you now go to the Acorn login page rather than a new Acorn session. I think it would be more helpful if, when you click 'OK,' you actually start a new Acorn session.” He wondered if this bothered anyone else. Some other members agreed that the current situation was problematic. Dale indicated that it might be possible to have different pages appear for logged-in and non-logged-in users, so that when Acorn timed out for the former, they would be returned to a basic search screen, while when Acorn timed out for the latter, they would be returned to the Acorn log in page. The group thought this would be fine.