Re: R.2001A Limit/Sort by Year

["Craig Johnson" <CJOHNSON@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually we were ecstatic that III changed the sort logic. None of our patrons could understand why, for example, a date-sorted list of vampire films would place Bela Lugosi's "Dracula" before "Buffy the Vampire Killer," simply because the video release date was newer - practically speaking it made no sense. I totally agree that the entire 260|c should be displayed, but a sort on the copyright date is generally much more useful (at least for us). Digressing a bit from your example below, it seems to me that there's a much clearer picture of Bettelheim's body of work shown when a date-sort of his works groups the various publications of "The Uses of Enchantment" together (and would display both dates), rather than mixing them up based on when someone released a paperback printing. 

I do realize that some of this may depend on the way different types of libraries are used. It's why I wish more of III's enhancements would provide for local customization - although this may not be a candidate. Sorry to disagree, but we feel changing the sort back to the first 260 date would be a very unfortunate step in the wrong direction, although we'd be happy to see both dates display.

Craig Johnson
Iowa City Public Library
cjohnson@xxxxxxxxxx 

>>> bmoore@xxxxxxxxxx 03/20/02 06:48PM >>>
WARNING: III has 'fixed' the Limit/Sort by Year function in the WebOPAC to 
use the same sort/display logic as the text-version. This is based on the 
last 4-digit number in the Publisher field which may in fact be the 
copyright, not the publication date. Previously, the WebOPAC sorted the 
260|c alphanumerically and displayed the full subfield. This had the effect 
of sorting on the first date in 260|c which provided a much more meaningful 
result. Also, our librarians regularly instructed patrons they could 
identify serials by their open publication date (e.g. 1996-) Now that it 
only displays the 4-digit year being sorted we have found the Limit/Sort by 
Year function of limited use. We have ended up turning on the SUPPRESS_YEAR 
WWWOPTION. Here's an example: 
http://libpac.sdsu.edu/search/t?SEARCH=Uses+of+enchantment+the+meaning+and+importance+of+fairy+tales 
With the Year column displaying, all these editions appear as 1976. The new 
Sort by Year logic also doesn't work for this title.

III says they may revisit this design decision in the next release and 
suggested the function may be enhanced to sort/display the most recent date 
from the Publisher field. This would be an improvement but we would still 
like to see the return of the full subfield display (perhaps as an 
option?). If you feel this is as critical as we do, please weigh in at 
mailto:enhance@xxxxxxxxxx. We would really like to see this fixed before the 
next release.

____________________________________________________________

Brian D. Moore                Information Systems & Technology
INNOPAC Coordinator        Library & Information Access
Tel.(619)594-2397                 San Diego State University
Fax (619)594-8982                       5500 Campanile Dr
bmoore@xxxxxxxxxx      San Diego CA  92182-8050 USA
____________________________________________________________

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