Discovery Interface Subcommittee Minutes

July 19, 2023, 9:30 am

Phone/video conference

Action Items:

None

Present: Tom Campbell (MAD), Jake Ineichen (MAD), Eric Norton (MCM)

Absent: None

Excused: Rachael Page (DEE)

Recorder: Michelle Karls (SCLS)

SCLS Staff Present: Amy Gannaway, Rose Ziech

1. Call to Order at 9:3  am

a. Introduction of guests/visitors

i. None.

b. Changes/Additions to the Agenda

i. E. Norton reported that he noticed in Firefox, both in the staff client and LINKcat, the Sort by option in Advanced Search is directly under the search bar.  He finds this to be very helpful.  Chrome still has this at the bottom of the page.  We will talk about this under 4c. 

c. Requests to address the Committee

i. None.

2. Approval of previous meeting minutes: May 17, 2023

a. Motion: E. Norton moved approval of the May meeting minutes.  T. Campbell seconded.

b. Discussion: none.

c. Vote: motion carried. 

3. Action Items

a. None

4. Discussion

a. Updates from previous meeting

i. Adding more ALA award lists: Pura Belpre Award

1. A. Gannaway finished the Pura Belpre Award list.  She will continue to work on adding more lists as she has time.

ii. OverDrive API Integration

1. We are waiting on LibLime for additional fixes and a status update.   

iii. Awards Note (586) field in Discovery Layer

1. This note is now displaying for the public. 

iv. Configuration for single-result searches

1. A. Gannaway tested this in production.  For some reason, it messes with the significant digit barcode issue and it shouldn’t.  We can’t really change it now.  How often does this issue come up before?  MAD reported this is the only patron who has reported this.

v. Google Analytics 4

1. Monthly report statistics

a. R. Ziech reported that Google Analytics released an update and we had no choice but to upgrade.  We had to get a new profile for this.  The older version is no longer collecting data.  Previously, we had tracking installed and Google compiled it into a report that we posted to LINKcat.  The reporting in Google Analytics 4 is slightly different.  The default view of the data trends is really more commerce-focused, which is not aligned with the type of data we were collecting before.  R. Ziech is assuming we don’t want to track these types of things.  The group agreed.  She created a new sample report for the sandbox and shared it with the group.  Data will look a lot different because it’s in the sandbox.  We used to track the type of device, number of sessions, browsers used, and if patrons are coming to the website directly or by referral from another site.  What kind of data do we want to see in the official report for LINKcat?  J. Ineichen reported that MAD’s website tracks exit links to LINKcat and would want to see incoming links to LINKcat to see how many coming from other library’s websites. R. Ziech reported it is possible to get that in the snapshot.  A. Gannaway would like to track what browsers people are using.  R. Ziech pointed out some other options.  MAD’s marketing team is going to Google Analytics training because they are interested in multi-stream data.  Are we pulling information from the Mobile App into this report?  We don’t have the ability to integrate the mobile app stats and we post a separate report for those statistics. A. Gannaway is waiting for Solus to get the new version of the app to start testing and we will ask about integrating the statistics at that time.  R. Ziech will work on the draft report including what was discussed and have it ready to review at the next meeting.        

vi. LINKcat Mobile App

1. Discussion: Solus has redesigned the app.  A. Gannaway talked to them at ALA and got a demo of the new app.  We will be getting a test site and will review what has changed.  She had another meeting with Solus about the problem with the Mobile App connectivity.  The problems are related to issues with API connecting to Bibliovation.  They were going to look into this.  We can do some marketing for patrons to let them know when we are ready to switch to the redesigned app.  J. Ineichen reported a staff member had put in a concern from a patron that Waiting/In transit holds are now sorting at the bottom.  A. Gannaway reported that happened with the last Bibliovation upgrade and was added to the Known Problems webpage (under Discovery Layer).  A. Gannaway also reported this to Solus.

b. Talpa search from Syndetics Unbound

i. Discussion: There is a new product from Syndetics Unbound called Talpa, which is an AI based search. If their customers put a link on their website by October 31, you can use it for free for a year.  There is the possibility this may be taken away at some point because it sounds like it is still in the testing stage.  A. Gannaway demonstrated the search for the group.  We thought about sharing it with libraries that may want to test.  We’d have to test if we can get it to work with Bibliovation.  The group was interested and thought it may be useful for staff more than patrons.  A. Gannaway will see if it will work with Bibliovation and then let library staff know about it. 

c. Other Bibliovation questions and/or discussion

i. Discussion: E. Norton mentioned the Advanced Search differences in Firefox and Chrome. A. Gannaway confirmed the Advanced search issue in Chrome.  R. Ziech was looking at html and markup is different.  R. Ziech will try to find where we have code for this in sandbox that alters Advanced Search page and take it out.  It could be related to a Firefox upgrade.  Sarari also putting the Advanced search at bottom, so this is a Firefox issue.  We will be upgrading it again soon so perhaps it will get fixed.  MAD wanted to report that one patron would like the MPL login and link to the web site (for mad.linkcat.info) to also display on the mobile version.  Adding the logo and link in the mobile view would take up more space in the display, so this is why it doesn’t appear in the mobile view. No one else is interested in changing - we only heard one patron about this.    

5. Plan for the Next meeting:  September 20, 2023, at 9:30 am via phone/video conference

6. Adjournment at 10:38 am.

For more information about the Discovery Interface Subcommittee, contact Amy Gannaway.

SCLS staff are available to attend cluster meetings to share information and answer questions pertaining to this committee meeting and other departmental projects.

Discovery Interface Subcommittee/Minutes/07-2023