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To: I-Share Users' Group With respect to the (former) CCAC and (former) OPACCTF recommendation regarding indexing initial articles in Voyager (http://www.carli.illinois.edu/reports/iuag/060503indxvoy.html), the I-Share OPAC Team recommends that the new indexes, which ignore the non-filing indicators on titles and journal titles, be added to the TALL and JALL composite indexes in all I-Share catalogs. These revised indexes will improve search results for patrons attempting a search for an item without omitting the initial article, as is quite common. The change to the TALL and JALL indexes should enable patrons to succeed in searching for known titles more often and with less assistance and instruction from library staff. However, when the opportunity to instruct patrons in effective use of the catalog arises, we recommend librarians continue to advise dropping initial articles before executing a search. Our rationale here is that these index changes will not completely resolve "The Initial Article Problem." Initial articles are sometimes omitted from certain types of title entries. For example, uniform titles (often used for anonymous works and musical compositions) are typically entered without initial articles. A title search that includes an initial article will not match these title entries and may not retrieve all available manifestations of a work. Omitting the initial article from a title search will always produce the most comprehensive results. Due in part to these issues, we will not make related changes to the interface, including the Search By names (such as, "Title (omit first word a, an, the)"), at this time. Future changes to Search By names, help text, and error messages (such as the nohitsmsg.htm) may be incorporated into a later package of revisions. |
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Executive Committee Collections Working Group Digital Collections Users Illinois Repository Task Force |
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