You may have caught the MeL Minute last October about the results of the MeL usability study of Encore Duet, the search box on the MeL homepage. We took the results of that study very seriously and implemented many of the changes that were revealed as desired enhancements. The vendor with whom we work has also had a number of product improvements. We'd like to thank the staff and patrons of the Jackson District Library who have agreed to participate in a follow-up study to determine whether these changes improve the success rate of the MeLCat request process. We'll also be working with non-patrons-mid-Michigan residents who do not currently have a library card-to see if MeLCat is intuitive for them. That study will take place this summer with results to be announced in the fall. Stay tuned! Have you noticed the recent changes to MeLCat and the Articles & eResources search? Here they are: * Records with more holdings attached to them are weighted more heavily. This means that records that have more lending libraries attached to them will appear higher in the search results, hopefully making them more attractive to click on and improving the findability of available copies. * This also has the benefit of decreasing the visibility of electronic resources with only one holding. * Known title searching has improved. * There is now better matching on one word titles * If no copies associated with a given record are available for loan that is now noted on the results page with a red message: "No copies currently available" * A number of the facets have been collapsed and can opened or closed with a plus/minus sign * A background color (green instead of gray) was added to the Facets section * The Request an Available Copy screen has been improved. 1. Only Available or Status unknown (Follett systems) items are shown 2. The request button is larger and at both the top and bottom of the screen and 3. The messaging has been simplified and improved. * Icons were made larger and colored * "Get This from MeLCat" and "View Record" are no longer grayed out unless they're selected on the search results page The MeL Minutes are brought to you by Sonya Schryer Norris and Deb Renee Biggs, Library Consultants at the Library of Michigan @Library of Michigan MeL Team MeL databases are available to Michigan residents or Michigan library access only. MeL Minutes are brought to you by the Library of Michigan. Want more information on MeL? Stay tuned for the next MeL Minute available on many Michigan library listservs, email us at contact@mel.org<mailto:contact@mel.org>, visit http://mel.org<http://mel.org/>, or Sign up for the MeL Minute and other Library of Michigan e-mail lists via GovDelivery<https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/MILOM/subscriber/new>. We encourage you to share MeL Minutes with your colleagues and networks. Sonya Schryer Norris Library of Michigan 702 W. Kalamazoo St. PO Box 30009 Lansing, MI 48909 517-373-4457 http://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan http://www.mel.org<http://www.mel.org/> http://www.michlibrary.org<http://www.michlibrary.org/> Nourishing Michigan's Future...during school and during the summer! Find a Summer Food Service Program site nearest you and encourage Michigan's children to Meet Up and Eat Up! www.michigan.gov/meetupeatup<http://www.michigan.gov/meetupeatup> [cid:image002.png@01D2CD53.CCC38130]
