Some comments on the LINGUIST service provider

[Steven Bird]

Helen et al,

The new search pages on the LINGUIST site are greatly improved!
Here are some further suggestions concerning layout and features.
I'm sending them to the list to see if others have opinions about
any of this.

First, I think the search field should precede the descriptive text, so
that nothing at all gets in the way of users doing searches (cf search
engines).  As it is there is already a fixed banner and sidebar that the
user has to skip over.

Second, the search section is ambiguous.  Should the user click on "Search
th OLAC catalog" or should they enter keywords and click the search button?
I think the search icon could be omitted, since you already have a link to
advanced search.

Third, it would be helpful to be able to browse the contents of an
individual archive.  This is akin to the archive selection you can make on
the advanced form, but it doesn't require extra search fields and could be
made more accessible by putting it on the front page.  The interface could
parallel the keyword search field:

     Keyword(s): [TEXT FIELD]      (search button)
     Browse:     [ARCHIVE MENU]    (browse button)

Fourth, in cases where there are several screenfulls of hits, it would be
helpful to be able to sort the search results by title, creator, date,
subject language, archive, or type.  This just requires an "order by"
clause on the SQL side, and could be presented as a pulldown menu on the
advanced search form and on the search results form.

Anyway, there are some ideas I'm throwing out.  Thanks for the service
you're already providing.

Steven Bird