LENS is an AquaBrowser online catalog installation at the University of Chicago library that has just gone live, albeit in beta.
It is an impressive catalog interface, showing what can be done with our existing cataloging, good software, and an eye towards good layout. I especially like the Library of Congress Classification links that reside above the search results… each time you narrow your search, you get additional options for narrowing it even further. Try it and you will see what I mean.
Pretty much the only things I don’t like on first look are:
- I have never really liked the “starburst” tag cloud that is part of the AquaBrowser installation. It doesn’t really add to the ease of use, and isn’t very accessible (a text-based tag cloud is more user-friendly, I feel). No big problem, though, as it isn’t an integral part of the search, and can be ignored fairly easily.
- When you turn off page styles, the resulting page is very unfriendly, especially the search results box, which is sized quite poorly. Their high accessiblity version of the site (called “text only”) is a great improvement. Web sites should handle styling much more naturally, imo.
These minor points aside, this is our future, and UofC has done some fantastic work. Kudos!
from a post to NGC4LIB
