Primo VE: subject searching with hyphens
When I click on a subject heading in a record in Primo VE (https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991029907089703276&context=L&vid=01VAN_INST:DIVINITY&search_scope=MyInstitution&tab=LibraryCatalog&lang=en), Primo VE does an exact subject search and gets no results, not even the record on which I clicked the subject heading. This only happens with some subject headings, not all. An example: the subject heading Self immolation -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism gives zero results (not even the record which contains the subject link I'm clicking on shows up, nor any other records with that subject heading -- 2 others); while the subject heading Buddhism -- China -- Customs and practices seems fine. We reported this to Ex Libris, which Vlad responded with the following:
"I have investigated this issue further and found that the issue is being caused by the hyphen in Self-immolation. Other subject exact searches work fine, but quotations are needed around "Self-immolation" in order for the exact search to recognize the word."
So subjects with hyphens cannot perform an exact search correctly in Primo VE without having quotes around them. This should be corrected.
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shared this idea
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Stacey van Groll
commented
Hi James - Did Ex Libris classify this as an enhancement rather than a defect, and direct you here? This is not right if yes, as if a subject heading lateral link with a hyphen requires quotation marks in order to function as expected to return results, then it should be included in the query by the system at the point of initiating the action.
I see that your search also functions as expected when removing the hyphen and leaving a space.
I have checked this on our Primo Back Office site, set also to exact phrase action, and it is working as expected with both the initial lateral link and also when initiating the search again after removing the hypen and leaving a space, which is expected with the Search Engine Configuration option also of Remove Hyphens as the default.
It seems clear that this is a defect with Primo VE that should be fixed.