[Wactclc-primo] Searching Course Reserves by Department

[Thomas, Kirsti]

Tammy,

We ended up putting codes plus names in the Description fields for both the Courses table and the Academic Department table to make Reserves searches in Primo work the way we wanted.

For example, here are some Course Names from our Courses Table:

ABE 023: Adult Basic Education
ACCT&201: Principles of Accounting I
ENGL 201: Advanced Composition
WIN 142: Wine Business

We've found that listing the course code in the same field with the name makes it easier to retrieve Reserves in Primo. We repeat the course code in the Course Code field in the Courses Table.  Here's a screen shot of our Course Table so you can see what I mean:

[cid:image001.png at 01D38A29.69CC8660]

For our "Academic Departments" we're not necessarily using the academic department that a course belongs to within our organizational hierarchy.  Instead, we use headings that show up in the online course catalogs that our students have access to (sometimes these correlate with a specific academic department within the organizational hierarchy and sometimes these are for cross-departmental programs).

For example, the online course catalog at Central shows the following "Departments" or "Course Subjects" (non-library departments aren't consistent with their terminology) ;) when students register for classes:

[cid:image003.png at 01D38A2B.1096A010]
We copied those names and codes into our Academic Departments Table in Alma like you see below.  Just like we do with the Course Names, we put a code and name together in one field for our Academic Departments.

[cid:image002.png at 01D38A2B.DE93C790]

We've found that having the code and the name together in one field-- using a standardized format for word order and punctuation-- improves the chances of retrieving reserves info no matter what you search by in the reserves scope. Hope this helps!


It will be ok!

Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu



From: Wactclc-primo [mailto:wactclc-primo-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Tammy Siebenberg
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2018 13:04
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>; WACTCLC Primo Discussion <wactclc-primo at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [Wactclc-primo] Searching Course Reserves by Department

When we created our courses for course reserves we entered the course code, course name, and department (e.g., AH108, AH 108, Allied Health).

When we search Primo under our Course Reserves scope and search by Course Department (e.g., Allied), it finds nothing.  If we search by the beginning of the course name (e.g., AH), then it finds all of the Allied Health books and in the facets lists the Course Department as AH rather than Allied Health.

When students search course reserves by department, they won't know to use the abbreviation and will get zero hits.  Is anyone else having this problem or found a solution?

Tammy

Tammy R. Siebenberg, MLIS
Director - Library & Media Services
Yakima Valley College
Yakima, WA  98902
509.574.4984
tsiebenberg at yvcc.edu<mailto:tsiebenberg at yvcc.edu>
www.yvcc.edu<https://www.yvcc.edu/>

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