[519] Inforsearch Eases Access To Library Books, Journals At MTSU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 25, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

INFOSEARCH EASES ACCESS TO LIBRARY BOOKS, JOURNALS AT MTSU
Gore Center, Music Library, Instructional Media Catalogs Just a Mouse Click Away

(MURFREESBORO) – Students using MTSU’s James E. Walker Library will see a big change when they log on to the library’s website from now on. The institution’s new search engine is now online, providing even more options and user-friendly access to Walker’s resources for both on-campus students and distance learners at http://library.mtsu.edu.
With money from federal stimulus funds, the library has replaced its Voyager search system, which has been in place for about 10 years, with Millennium software that the library has christened InfoSearch.
“It looks a little bit more like modern-day Web interfaces,” says Electronic Resources Librarian Mary Ellen Pozzebon. “It doesn’t look as outdated as Voyager does.”
InfoSearch enables users to conduct basic searches by entering key words without having to limit themselves to title or subject. They also will be able to find out where the resource is and whether it has been checked out.
“The catalog will also include some, but not all, holdings from the Gore Center and the Center for Popular Music,” says Pozzebon. “It will include all the holdings from the (Howard) Music Library and the Instructional Media Resources Library, and, of course, all of the materials here.”
Systems Librarian David Robinson says the new system offers “a quick and intuitive search interface” with many new search tools, including content categories, tag clouds (hyperlinked words used to describe website comment), spell-checking, recently added materials suggestions and relevance ranking. The search engine even has a “Did you mean …?” feature.
Another advantage of InfoSearch over Voyager is access to Google previews. Patrons will be able to click on a picture of a book and read an overview of it before deciding whether it suits their needs.
“Book cover art, table of contents, content summary and other features will be available,” says Robinson. “Users can add descriptive tags to books in the catalog and can rate books on usefulness.”


--more--



INFOSEARCH
Add 1

“There’s a very robust user community that shares tips and tricks and adjustments that they’ve made,” adds Pozzebon. “We can borrow implementations that other libraries have done.”
In addition, a smart-phone enabled interface will allow users to search the library catalog from a Web-enabled cell phone by pointing the phone’s browser to http://airpac.library2.mtsu.edu.
For more information about InfoSearch, contact the James E. Walker Library at 615-898-2772.


--30--


With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.