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Digital Media Lab

Usability Research Lab

Quick Search

Overview

Quick Search is a highly-customized library website search tool with enhancements designed to connect users to a variety of library resources, services and tools. Rather than replace existing dedicated library resource discovery tools such as the catalog, electronic resource search, and subject guides/portals, Quick Search is designed to complement and increase use of these tools by directing users to them via an intuitive search interface. The goal is to provide library users with a quick and easy way to find the information they need.

Team

Technical Details

Quick Search provides a unified search interface to a collection of specialized search modules that respond to user queries in different ways. Most of these search modules use a local index of library content, while some search modules are dynamically integrated via HTTP requests to other locally developed library search applications. The search logic used to find matches to the user's query will vary from one module to the next. The search modules also differ from each in terms of how matching results for different content types are displayed. Some of the technologies used include PHP for website programming, SWISH-E for content indexing, MySQL, and Nutch for website search.

Available modules:
  • Library Web Pages
  • Best Bets (high-demand resources)
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Catalog Results
  • Find Articles in related subjects
In development:
  • Journal Title Results

Project Links

Reports and Presentations

Sierra, T. (2007). "A Single Search Box Interface to the NCSU Libraries, Two Years Later", Digital Library Federation Spring Forum 2007, Pasadena, California, April 24, 2007.

Sierra, T. (2007). "A Single Search Box Interface to the NCSU Libraries", LAUNC-CH Annual Conference, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 12, 2007.

Sierra, T. (2007). "Best Bets: Improving Search to High Demand Resources", Code4Lib 2007, Athens, Georgia, March 2, 2007.

Sierra, T. and Morris, S. (2005). "In Search of the Single Search Box: Building a 'First-step' Library Search Tool", Digital Library Federation Spring Forum 2005, San Diego, California, April 14, 2005.


Last updated: April 26, 2007

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