This has become even more important with the recently published option of using the starts-with-search for call numbers. The idea of including a tooltip is helpful, but it still leads users to a dead end. It would be even more helpful if one could only select the starts-with search for title and call number and not find it at all for other options. There was also a NERS request (ID 8273 in spring 2023) on this topic. Could you please reconsider working on this?

> Our Library (University of Macau Library) would like to add "starts with" in subject search.

I think you should open a new idea for this and link to it from here.

So by now the tooltips exist. They really are not a solution in my opinion.

- mobile doesn't have tooltips
- if I activate 'starts with - call number' I have to either adapt the tooltip or suppress it

(Same problem for the tooltips for the new 'is exact phrase' search).

This is not an enhancement. This is a request for Primo to follow UX design guidelines.

Current implementation suggests to users that they can search "Any field" that "Starts with" their search term.

They cannot. This confuses and frustrates them. To make matters worse, the dropdown behavior is inconsistent (also a cause of complaint):

Selecting "Starts with" in the Search Type disables everything but Title and Holdings Call Number (if configured) in the Field Selector. The Field Selector removes the disabled options from view.

For the sake of consistency, selecting anything other than Title and Holdings Call Number ought to disable "Starts with" and remove it from view.

Behavior should be consistent: Either disabled items are removed from view in both dropdowns, or they are not removed from view in either dropdown.

If the disabled items are not removed from view, then they need to be obviously inactive.

UX design guidelines suggest to gray out any incompatible options and, optionally, ALSO display a tool tip explaining why the option is gray.

https://www.justinmind.com/blog/drop-down-list-design/#:~:text=What%20do%20we,with%20their%20mouse!

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/drop-down-menus/#:~:text=Gray%20out%20any,make%20it%20active.

For example: Books with subject heading that begins with "Law" generally discuss laws in a general and collective way, while "Obligations (Law)", "Civil law", "Press law", "Radio--Law and legislation" and so on discuss various laws individually. LCSH has thousands of subject headings that contain the word "law", i.e. if search criteria is set as Subject "is (exact)" in Primo VE, then the result will presumably include large number of materials that readers actually do not want. On March 24, 2023, a try was done with the same criteria and found a total of 1,650 materials. Taking the first 20 results as an example, only 6 bibs. are with subject headings that begin with the word "Law", i.e. the desirable hit rate is only 30%.

Actually the above case occurs in hundreds of LCSH, e.g. "Disabilities", "Finance", "Artists" and " Criticism".

Comparing with Title or Keyword search, the advantage of Subject search is high accuracy of results. However, Primo VE does not provide "Starts with" of Subject search, this greatly weakens its accuracy and on the other hand increases the burden of readers' screening. These days, we are facing a problem of too much information and therefore providing readers with accurate information is the most effective way to help them finding information.

We support to have the search option "Starts with" in the subjects search and other fields like notes fields, publishing fields, and etc.

Our Library (University of Macau Library) would like to add "starts with" in subject search.

NERS 8273, open for voting now.

> And I don't think a tooltip would contribute much to a better user experience.

I agree.
Tooltips are not visible on mobile.

Also, the tooltip seems to have been rolled out by now, but only in English, and I don't remember having seen any information about it?

Agreed! The current behaviour is very strange and not user friendly. And I don't think a tooltip would contribute much to a better user experience. Functions should only be displayed where they can be used, and it's confusing that Primo VE just changes the field selector when you choose the search type "starts with".

By autumn 2023 also 'Starts with – Holding call number' should become possible (NERS 7986).

> the default search is usually done on the "Any" field

I don't agree: patrons who only need the "Any" field have no reason to switch to advanced search.

Patrons who take the step to advanced search are looking for something they couldn't find with a search in the "Any" field.

> We are considering adding a tooltip to the "Starts with" search operator,
> rather than displaying it only for the "Title" field.
> The tooltip will explain that this search option is available only for the "Title"
> field.

This seems like a strange way of "solving" this to me, not least because tooltips are not visible on mobile.

We already use the workaround of rephrasing the label to inform our patrons about this.

'Starts with' should only be visible when it actually can be used.

I agree; this is more of a bug and is baffling why this hasn't been corrected since 2017. The search interface should not give you options for ineligble categories.

I can't believe this has been a thing since 2017 and it still hasn't been fixed. This is not a good user experience at all.

this should be a basic function and not an enhancement idea. We are having a lot of problems with searching subject headings because of the lack of this function. We are getting a lot of noise with results of sub subjects that are being retrieved. very important feature. Please vote!

excellent idea otherwise all the other "start with" very confusing

Liverpool Hope University renamed 'starts with' to 'starts with (titles only)' as a temporary workaround
https://hope.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=44HOP_INST:VU1&lang=en&mode=advanced

For the pre-filters under the search field in simple search:
Configuration –> Discovery –> Labels –> Basic Search Pre-Filters Labels

For advanced search:
Configuration –> Discovery –> Labels –> Search Tile Labels

For multilingual Primo VEs: switch the language above the table, save each change before you go to the next language.

I agree. I want to see this change. It is very confusing the way it is now.

> immediately switches to a title search

Also mentioned here
https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308176-primo/suggestions/16747642-add-starts-with-functionality-to-call-number-field

https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308176-primo/suggestions/33797446-optimize-call-number-advanced-search

https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308176-primo/suggestions/45293770-holdings-information-search-starts-with