Display more location info in Midcat

This is not really my suggestion; I’m passing it along:

A user from outside the Middlebury College community (a college library director from another Vermont institution) using the Middlebury catalog remarked that it was difficult to determine which library housed the particular item she was interested in. A patron of hers planned to travel here to use the item, and wanted to make sure she had her destination correct.

I have no way of knowing whether or not this is a common concern, but I wonder if it might warrant exploring additional options for displaying additional location information? Would it help to add “Main Library/Armstrong library/Music library” in addition to the current location information for those patrons who don’t know what “Armstrong stacks” or “Main stacks lower level” mean? (Or to help those who aren’t even aware that we have branch libraries?)

Thanks!

From Jess Isler

One thought on “Display more location info in Midcat

  1. Carrie Macfarlane Post author

    Thanks for sharing this suggestion, Jess. We’ve taken another look at Midcat, and we agree that it could stand some improvement. We’ll look into revising location names to make them more informative, and we hope to be able to revise our maps too. (We wonder if the visitor noticed that she could click on the location to get a page with a map and an address–but even if she did, we think that page could be improved!)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *