Experimental staff catalog: better workflow for the call number browse

[Jane Sandberg]

The Shelf Browser feature is super helpful when cataloging. The experimental angular catalog has a shelf browser feature, but it is not well-integrated into the record view. Currently, you have to click on "Shelf Browse" and manually type in the call number you are interested in.

There should be a way to go from a record to see what is around it on the shelf (similar to the Shelf Browser area in the OPAC record display).

Bill Erickson mentioned that we should probably not rely on the Shelf Browser in the embedded OPAC in the Patron View tab (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1849137/comments/9).

What is the best workflow here? Discussion very welcome. :-)

[Bill Erickson (berick)]

Adding a Shelf Browser tab to the record detail page in the Angular catalog seems reasonable to me. That should provide a consistent user experience.

[Bill Erickson (berick)]

And a follow-up question to my previous comment... If we add a Shelf Browser tab, should it also display results as a list, like the main shelf browse action (though probably showing fewer results) or does it make more sense in this case to go back to using grid layout?

[Chrisy Schroth (cschroth)]

I agree with Jane that the shelf browser is very important to me when I am cataloging (I mainly catalog adult nonfiction). In our current catalog (3.2.10) the main things I use the OPAC view for is to check the shelf browse to see how my call number indexes (every record), and sometimes to place holds. I've been reading bug reports and comments, and then looked at the experimental catalog that was posted to the CWG list this week, and saw that by choice, neither of those functions is available in the Patron View tab. Personally, having to go out to search the call number from a separate browser tab every time would be a big step backwards in usability in my workflow.

I think both the list and grid views have positives and negatives. I found the shelf browse in the experimental catalog, and typed in a random call number. My first reaction was that in this browse there was no visual clue to where my call number is, or should be (i.e., "your call number would be here"). Looking closer I realized that if it existed, the number I searched would have been item 11 of 20 on the page, so it was still in the middle like the grid, but because there is a LOT more text, not just the brief info in the grid view, it was way down the page, off my screen, so at first I thought that it just didn't find what I was looking for.

The problem with the current grid format is that it doesn't currently have enough items on each page, particularly if the topic has a lot of items/call numbers, as there is a LOT of next/previous page scrolling to try to see how the new item fits. In particularly complicated areas I have to get a piece of paper and start scrolling and listing them in order so I can see where to fit my item in. I like that this new list view has 20 items on the page instead of only 9, so that would cut down on back/next page scrolling, but there was so much extra text that made it hard to follow.

I think the list view would probably be the better option, but with just call number, title, author like the grid view. If having the full info in this view is important to some people, maybe it could be something you could toggle for full/brief info, like the show more details button on a search results screen. It should be sticky of course so you didn't have to change it unless you wanted the other view for some reason.

It gets harder to remember our old system, but I do remember a brief-info list display that you could just arrow up and down in a perpetual scroll to see any grouping of surrounding call numbers which was very helpful, but I don't know if something like that is possible in this web-based environment.

[Bill Erickson (berick)]

Thanks for the input, Chrisy!

Another option is to return to the grid layout, but show more rows by default (say, 7). That would present a lot of information to the user with much less scrolling than is required in the list view. And it helps to clarify the central/searched item the set.

Since the existing shelf browse interface only shows jacket, call number, branch, title, and author, starting with that those fields only is reasonable. We can tweak later as needed.

General question, do staff find the jacket images useful in call number browse? If the jackets were not displayed, we could fit even more data on the page.

[Bill Erickson (berick)]

I have pushed a branch implementing an alternate view of the call number browse. It returns to the grid-shaped browse, but with a more dense data display. (It currently shows 15 per page instead of 9, but that could be modified).

Pending review, this branch only modifies the existing Shelf Browse interface and does not yet implement the record-specific browse entry point.

Screen shot attached.

https://git.evergreen-ils.org/?p=working/Evergreen.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/user/berick/lp1850546-staff-cat-cn-browse

[Terran McCanna (tmccanna)]

+1 to showing more titles at once and to highlighting the one that you're currently viewing. It looks much cleaner than the older version.

[Bill Erickson (berick)]

Thanks for the input, Terran.

I've pushed another commit to the same branch to add a Shelf Browse tab on the record detail page. Also includes additions to turn the title and author values into links, consistent with the tpac shelf browse display.

Note the code for bug #1852782 (MARC editor) includes a patch to collapse the search form along the top of the record detail page by default. This will improve usability of this feature as well since it will mean less scrolling while paging through browse results.

[Ruth Frasur Davis (redavis)]

I have tested this code and consent to signing off on it with my name, rfrasur, and my email address, <email address hidden>.

[Bill Erickson (berick)]

Thanks for all the input and testing. Code merged to master.