Missouri Digital Heritage: Actions and Plans Haiying Qian Missouri State Library MLA Annual Conference, October 6, 2011

Usability Study Report Recommendations Structure and organization Terminology and Labeling of content Basic search features and functionality Federated searching 4 Committees Tasked Navigation Committee Categorization Committee Format Committee Search Functionality Committee Report to MDH Management Team

Navigation Committee  Make hover drop-down menus for tabs  Make the link for “All Collections” more visible and appear both on top and bottom of page  Add “back to top” buttons on long pages  Get rid of “Moderate Relevance” search results when browsing the collections.  Put contact information on the “About” page, including , phone and mailing address  Make Breadcrumb clickable

Navigation Committee  Create a drop down menu under “about”, have information about “MDH” and “Missouri”  Improve image viewers so users can see the whole record  Add browse by media type option

Format Committee  Shrink banner  Shrink title/institution fonts on splash pages  Place View and Search buttons above the images on splash pages  For the Clusters area on the Advanced Search results page, change the square bullets to round to avoid confusion over whether or not they are checkboxes.  Change “Clusters” to “Results by Collection.”  “About” tab should have drop-down for “About MDH,” “FAQs,” etc.  Add RSS button for notification when new collections are added

Categorization Committee  Remove High Relevancy and Moderate Relevancy go to a straight alphabetical list  Remove Archives presentations from the topics list presentations linked off the “Education” tab  Finding Aids should only be listed under Guides and Finding Aids  Separate media types out of the topics list  New definition: collections/exhibits/education pages

Rename Topics & New Definitions  Add New Topic : Missouri History  Delete and Merge: Agriculture  merge with Business as Business, Industry and Agriculture County & Municipal Records  merge with Government and Political Records  Move to Media Type: Archives and manuscripts collection guides; Books, Pamphlets, and monographs; Maps,; Newspapers, Photographs and Images  Change title and Description: Business, Commerce, Industry and Manufacturing  Business, Industry and Agriculture Family and Faith  Genealogy Medicine, Science, Technology, and Nature  Science and Nature Military Records and Resources  Military and Conflicts Sports and Recreation  Recreation and Tourism  No Changes: Art, Architecture, Literature, Music and Theatre; Cultures and Communities; Exploration and Settlement; Transportation; Women

Search Functionality Committee  Separate “People Search” and “Keyword Search” Create New Search Page with options of “People Search”, “Keyword Search” or “Detailed Search”  People searches People searches will be performed on name centered SQL databases and selected CONTENTdm collections. Users should be able to search first name and last name first, and then further limit their search results by County and/or Year  Keyword Search We recommend using a search design like CONTENTdm to search across fields. The SQL databases linked with keyword search are: Civil War Provost Marshal; Coroner’s Inquest; Supreme Court Historical Database; Missouri Judicial Index; Soldiers (for conflict) etc. The CONTENTdm collections linked with Keyword Search are: all collections but Hall’s Index; SHS index to newspapers, etc…  Detailed Search List of all databases link to native detailed search  Newspapers as one group Create a Newspaper Page to search all newspapers as one collection

MDH Management Team Review all proposed changes approve/disapprove/suggestion changes 75 recommendations were approved Next step: Implementation An Implementation Tracking Spreadsheet was created to track status

Implementation Tracking Spreadsheet

MDH Website Redesign  In house web redesign – many done or will be done soon New List of Categories Approved, will implement next Review Collection Title convention: official title vs. best known title Remove Moderate Relevancy On topic pages Finding aids only list under Guides and Finding Aids New browse by “Media Type” option New “help” files in prominent places with more FAQ included  Vendor work – Federated Search related design/issues Short term: Fix Boolean Search, Rename Clusters, etc.. long term goal: Redesign Federated Search

Main Page--Search Box Location Old Main Page – Search box upright New Main Page– Google like search box

Smaller Banner for subpages Old Collections Page New Smaller Banner

Renamed Tabs/Drop Down Menu

Civil War Sesquicentennial Promotion: New Civil War Portal

Five Regional Collaboration Projects Ozark Region – Springfield Greene County PL St. Louis Region- Missouri History Museum Kansas City region – Kansas City Public Library Central Region – State Historical Society of Missouri Southeast Region -- Southeast Missouri State Univ.

Navigation Friendly Buttons

Changes Next Year and Beyond CONTENTdm: Update software to version 6.1, improved user interface design; Retrofit data for better facet browsing option, federated search link to CONTENTdm Servers Around Missouri : multi-site server ? Federated Search: Separate People/Keyword Search, Make most use of native search (Detailed Search)