Comment 3 for bug 1850546

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.