Sunday, September 16, 2007

Making LINC Better for You – A Survey

"The following are some new features that we are considering to implement for LINC:

Add your own book reviews/comments
Add your own tags (i.e. using your own keywords to label the item)
Categorise your search results by subject, author and year
Display book covers
Display book reviews by others
Display tag cloud (i.e. grouping of tags by usage frequency)
Display the formats of items (e.g. book, CD, journal) as icons
Display the remaining items you can borrow
Most popular or related titles
Online payment of fines and fees
Personalisation features (e.g. bookmarking preferred titles)
RSS feeds
Search across multiple databases and library catalogues
Search using journal abbreviations (e.g. JAMA)
SMS notification of library notices
Spell-check
URL link to e-forms (e.g. intralibrary loan, document delivery)
URL link to e-reserves in IVLE"


Wah, funky.

I also get to diss the National Library Board's shitty search interface in comparison.

I suggested they let us see what's in the Confidential Collection but I doubt that's going to happen before the PAP loses power.


Also, an interesting response I got when requesting the purchase of a controversial book:

"Dear Gabriel

Thank you for your request. We have this title in our collection. You are unable to find it in LINC because we have suppressed the record as the book is a ban collection. If you need to use this book, please ask your supervisor/lecturer to email to ***"

The best part is that apparently the book isn't even banned. At least as of 2001.