Search should make use of authority data

[Jane Sandberg]

This was an idea that came up over and over again during the recent Evergreen Conference, so I wanted to make sure we had a place to discuss it.

I've heard complaints from colleagues at institutions that do have searches that are enriched with authority data that the authority data are still all behind the scenes, and patrons don't always understand why they get those particular results. Additionally, not displaying the authority data used to generate the search doesn't acknowledge the fact that different people simply have different terms for similar concepts. I would prefer that we find a patron-friendly way to display (and highlight) relevant search terms taken from authority records. Maybe labeling it "Additional keywords" or something?

[Jane Sandberg (sandbergja)]

As an example, here's how our discovery layer does it: https://github.com/lbcclib/findit_data_tools/blob/master/lib/traject/eg_authorities.config.rb

Here's a description:
1) While indexing a record in the discovery layer, look for a $0 in any of the following tags: '100', '110', '111', '600', '610', '611', '630', '650', '651', '700', '710', '711', '730', '800', '810', '811', '830'
2) When you find a $0, grab the relevant authority record
3) Grab any contents of these fields from the authority record if they exist: '400', '410', '411', '430', '447', '448', '450', '451', '455', '500', '510', '511', '530', '550', '551', '555', '663', '664', '665', '666', '680', '681', '682', '700', '710', '711', '730', '747', '748', '750', '751', '755', '780', '781', '782'
4) Index those contents into a lowly-weighted, not-visible-to-the-public, but searchable field.

[Janet Schrader (jschrader)]

Jane, This is what I would like to happen.

When someone searches the term in the 4xx field in the authority record, It would be great if the display in the OPAC would be:
[Searched term] is not used in this catalog. Search [authorized heading] instead.

And, the authorized heading would be a clickable link. This way one would see what the authorized heading is instead of getting a results list without knowing why you got there.

Example:
Shin, Kyung-sook is not used in this catalog. Search Sin, Kyong-suk instead.

When I worked on how the cross-references would display in the browse list there was a discussion on whether clicking on the "see" terms would perform the search or would take you to that term in the browse list which is what it does.

Hope this makes some sense.

Janet