Creating a specialized music search interface in a traditional OPAC environment

Abstract

Purpose -Undergraduate music majors often search for resources in a limited number of formats. This developed a specialized search interface which might better support the needs of undergraduate music majors. The aim of this paper is to improve music resource discovery now, without spending any additional funds.Design/methodology/approach -A literature search was conducted to inform the design process. The web search capabilities of the library's existing catalog system were then used to develop a specialized music search interface. Finally, user testing was conducted to obtain qualitative feedback on the effectiveness of the new interface compared with the general-purpose library catalog interface.Findings -This project confirmed that an effective specialized music search interface could be created at no additional cost and with minimal effort, and that coupling a keyword search with pre-search format limiting was an effective strategy.Originality/value -The paper provides a low-cost approach to improving music searching using tools that already exist in most ILSs.Keywords Computer software, Libraries, Music, Online retrieval, Information retrieval, Online operation, Online catalogues, Library systems, United States of America Paper type Case study IntroductionHow people search for music is likely to change in the years ahead. In its annual proceedings, the International Society of Music Information Retrieval (2010) routinely describes potential new ways to discover music. The current generation of library discovery interfaces that offer tag clouds, concept maps, and facetted searching will also likely impact how music is discovered. These new methods of music information retrieval, however, are not yet available in many integrated library systems (ILSs). Like many institutions, budget constraints at Western Washington University (WWU) make the purchase of a new discovery layer unlikely in the next few years.The goal of this project was to improve music resource discovery now, without spending any additional funds. The project resulted in the creation of a specialized music interface based solely on the capabilities inherent in most traditional ILSs. After describing the environment in which the development took place, the article discusses the principle design issues-what type of search would best support music searching and which format limits to offer. Qualitative user assessment was obtained through user testing in which each participant searched for music resources in both the existing general-purpose catalog interface and the specialized music search

The “Black Box”: How Students Use a Single Search Box to Search for Music Materials

“…Some have tried to make music-specific interfaces for library catalogs, but this work is not widespread. 39 Perhaps because music students are often searching for things other than articles it would be better to have one tool that searches the catalog and streaming media tools and one that only searches article indexes. Some schools have taken this approach-configuring their discovery layer indexes to include article content but not the local catalog.…”