Introducing the BHL-Europe portal result list

The result list after performing a search is the most important thing for the user. In the case of the BHL-Europe portal, it is an interface environment with an easy navigation set-up and several functions that help the user get the most precise search result. The result list is structured in two columns and several blocks.

Right Column

The bigger right column shows the result items as Journal/Series, Volumes, Articles and Monographs. Each item type has its own icon representing the specific content type and is number according to his position in the list. The metadata of each item are structured in 4 categories which depend on the content type.  For a monograph, for example, these are: Title, Author, Year and Publisher. The title is always interactive and clicking on it will bring up the bibliographic page for this item. Below the item metadata there are three icons allowing the user go to the bibliographic page for that item, read the item in the content viewer or tag the item (the tagging function will be explained in details in the next development news update, the icon is not implemented yet).

List view

 There are two display modes to structure the list of results: the list view and the table view. The list view is a classical view sorting the items in lines (see picture above). Each item has the full title displayed, no matter how long it is. The table view is designed to display more results on one screen (see picture below). Items are in blocks of the same size; three next to each other is the maximum. The text is limited to three text lines for category.  If the text is longer, which is usual for titles, you can see the whole title by moving the mouse over it (item 2 on the picture below). The number of items on one page for both table and list view can be set between 5 and 30, and you can always switch between the list and table view.

Table view

The result list is sorted by relevance by default and it is sorted alphabetically by title if the search parameter is set to equal.

Left Column

The smaller left column includes two blocks. The first contains the search summary with the number of items matched in the result and the search string. The search string holds the term searched for along with the search parameter and the number of matches for each individual search term in the index. So if I search for several terms across several parameters the search summary shows me how many results I get for this complex search string in total, but it does not mean that the individual search terms do not appear more frequently in the index, if I were to search for them individually.

Search summary

Every search parameter is entered on one line for a clearer overview and to enable the opportunity to remove or add more search parameters easily.  To change the search parameters you can easily click on the edit search button in the search summary block and edit the search or browse settings (depending on from where the search began). The advanced search block or browse block will appear above the result list.

Facet list

One of the most useful (and amazing!) tools on the portal is the facet list. The facet list is the second block in the left column and is structured in a number of facet categories: Material type, Author, Year, Language, Content provider and Scientific name (see picture above). The main function of the facet list is to allow you to filter the result list by combining selections in categories and helps you find exactly what you are looking for.  Each facet selection adds a new request at the end of the search string. You can remove the filter by clicking on the minus button in the search block or by clicking on “REMOVE” directly on the category in the facet list. You can remove the requests independent of order.
   
Each change will affect the search result and result list items. Most categories are self-explanatory, but it is important to mention specifically the “scientific name” category. Expanding this category will show a long list including genera and species names or synonyms for names found in the content of the items in the result list. All results in categories in the facet list are sorted alphabetically or chronologically. You can expand or collapse individual category or all of them together.


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