Site refresher #4: Advanced Search and results
Make searching more efficient and relevant!
Every collection is different:
Choose facets and options that make sense for your site
Default settings offer all the bells and whistles - but maybe you don't need them all! You can streamline the user experience by choosing the right panels and labels for your collection.
What if...
...you are the only agency managing the collection, you can turn off the "Contributors" facet panel.
...your collection is all from one place, you can turn off the "Location" panel on the advanced search screen.
...you only refer to "Speakers" in the Creator field, why not change the label for searching the Creator field for your collection.
There are lots of possibilities! Think about what makes your collection unique and let's go...
Advanced Search Turn on or off panels and sub-panels or change field labels
to make searching more meaningful.
What panels can I turn on/off?
Dates
Location
Groups
Media
Rights
What sub-panels can I turn on/off?
Features: Choose which fields are searchable
Dates: Date range & fuzzy dates on/off
Media: Media type or Item type on/off
Remember: some panels and fields are mandatory for advanced searching
Results screen facet panel
The default in results is for all options to be available for faceting. But you might not need all of those options! Thinking about your collections and site set up, which of these facets make sense for your users...
Search within- allows additional keyword search
Sort - by relevance, alphabetical, date added, etc.
Media Types
Contributors- agencies that contribute to the site
Years - bingo card of years linked to Sortable date
Location- Map or List
Subjects
Item Types
Features- i.e. has comment or was contributed
Groups- associated with records in results
Web tools- subscription and data export options and link to open results set in Google Earth
How do I...
Go to Site Management > Advanced Search / Results pages
Use the radio buttons to select on/off
Provide alternate labels (remember to provide a French equivalent if you have parallel sites)
Update, then Reinitialize Public Site to make your changes!
...there you go!
Get fancy with Results "view" options!
Suggested uses:
List or two-column with thumbnails for digital newspaper issues or images
List only for index sites
Gallery view for image-based collections
Remember:
Only Site Administrators can make changes to the public site options like the ones mentioned here. Talk to us if you need to update any user accounts
