Re: Passing (pre-populating) advanced keyword search page

[Howard Pasternack <Howard_Pasternack@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Karl and Bowdoin are to be once again commended for creativity!  I have a 
question about this which others might be interested in.  It has been 
discussed several times on this list that a quick search form needs to have 
more or less the same html coding as the results screen or problems may 
result with follow-on searches.  We discovered this here at Brown and 
several others posted "why is my form doing this" messages all of which got 
more or less the same answer.  Bowdoin is clearly departing from this 
model.  Are there any unusual events which occur when a user does some 
follow-on searching or paging through the results.  -- Howard

At 03:36 PM 9/11/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>I thought some of you on this list might be interested in seeing this -- 
>it's also what we came up with as an answer to something we posted on the 
>list a while back.
>
>When we recently redesigned our library home page, we wanted to improve 
>upon our "quick search" script that offered the basic Innopac catalog 
>searches via dropdown selection of index/ search input box... (similar to 
>what is available in the WebPac itself).
>
>Our problem was with the "Word" search dropdown option. Before we 
>installed AVS, it didn't matter that whatever was input was searched 
>immediately, since no pre-limiting was available. Once we installed AVS, 
>we realized that most of our patrons who would be doing word searches from 
>the very conveniently located quick search box, would miss out on the 
>added pre-modification/limit capabilities of the AVS search.
>
>So with a little bit of javascript we stole from oreillynet, we were able 
>to pass the values input into the search box along to a "modified" AVS 
>word search help screen that is generated on the fly... which inherently 
>forces users to go through the AVS search help screen, giving them a 
>chance to modify their search (or not)... our Reference Librarians like it 
>a lot. One caveat... the interm page is STATIC and NOT built using the 
>tokens, so if those values change on the webpac they have to be manually 
>changed on the static page.
>
>Go to library.bowdoin.edu and input a "Word" search in the library catalog 
>search box.
>
>We are happy to share it... but make no offers to support it/help you get 
>it going... ;-)
>
>_______________________________________________________________________
>Karl Fattig, Technical Services Manager / Catalog Librarian  | __ Cheap
>Hawthorne-Longfellow Library              207.725.3027 (vox) | __ Fast
>Bowdoin College                           207.725.3083 (fax) | __ Good
>3000 College Station                         151164662 (icq) |
>Brunswick, ME 04011-8421          mailto:kfattig@xxxxxxxxxx | Pick two
>
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