A-Z option in Primo VE Journal Search
Add an A-Z browse option for Primo VE Journal Search, like the one available for Primo Classic as of the May 2017 release: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Primo/ProductDocumentation/030Highlights/028PrimoMay2017Highlights#SupportofAlmaJournalSearch%28NewUI%29
Tamara Kemp
shared this idea
3 comments
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Stacey van Groll
commented
Users often like to see the options arrayed visually, rather than starting to type and only maybe being offered the autosuggest they'd like.
An autosuggest also constrains a user into typing, rather than clicking or tapping quickly.
We don't use Journal Search in Primo on Back Office, but we have Database Search active which has an A-Z. The use of this is high by the amount that it shows up on our Popular Searches results.
For example, in 2019 there were 3,857 clicks on "P", which is highly likely users quickly targeting to PubMed, as that is also our consistently most popular search. And "W" was 2,749 clicks, likely for Web of Science, and "S" was 2,331 likely for Scopus.
Perhaps we should consider, instead of deciding that we know better and telling users that the manner in which they want to search is old-fashioned, we should instead listen to the action of users and instead support them by offering both options? -
John Doyle
commented
The Mar 28, 2019 response from Ex Libris to this suggestion is disappointing. Notwithstanding the search-driven features of Primo VE, our users repeatedly ask for a pure, alphabetical browse of resources (and most often of e-journal titles specifically). They have been accustomed to A-Z browsing from previous OPACs and ERM portals and find the comprehensive results to be more inherently trustworthy than a search-driven result.
Having said the above, we welcome the planned browse by hierarchical categories for journal titles.
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Adminchaniy
(Product Manager, Ex Libris)
commented
Primo VE offers an accurate auto-complete based on the journal titles held or subscribed by the university (a separate auto complete than Primo search). Instead of having the user click on a letter and get hundreds of journals in that letter they can start typing and get a much more relevant list. This was based on feedback from many customers that the A-Z is 'old fashioned' and not relevant in our days of many thousands of journals which is not usable for end users - and that an accurate auto complete would be more usable as they would start typing the 1st few letters of their journal and get their relevant journals.
The Primo VE Journal Search goes beyond the traditional link resolver journal search interfaces, offering both electronic and print journals making it the 1st true representation of all the journals an institutions holds or subscribes to (as opposed to just electronic before). Primo VE also offers a 'search within' feature that allows the user to search for articles in that are part of the journal they are interested in.We do have plans in the roadmap to add browsing the journals by hierarchical categories as well.