Hello colleagues--
Here at the Design school we have just concluded a trial of the Avery Index
on the CSA Illumina platform. (We did this once before--two years ago).
While a number of the issues we saw the last time have been addressed,
there is one issue that has still not been addressed, and that is the
journal name search and index. The results results from a search of this
field confirm that these are keyword searches of this field, and not
left-anchored searches. So, for examples, trying to find an article in the
journal "architecture" brings back citations to Moniteur Architecture AMC,
Landscape Architecture, A + U: Architecture and Urbanism. A search of the
journal name index does not improve matters--the results (after clicking
the box next to "Architecture") are still any journal with the word
architecture anywhere in the title. The same thing happens with a
phrase--"landscape architecture" also brings back citations to "Topos: the
internal review of landscape architecture and urban design".
Word from CSA is that there is no time-line to address this issue. Maybe I
am just old-fashioned, but I think this should be considered one of the
basic indexes in a database--a quick look at Wilson, EBSCO, OVID, Web of
Science--all have left-anchored journal title indexes. CSA includes a link
to a journal source list, which does include a list of titles with issn,
but does not include this in a searchable index in the database. They did
just add an ISSN search to the advanced search option (I pointed out they
didn't have one), but this is a clunky work-around.
Am I just cranky from the heat wave on the east coast or is this an issue
others have been unhappy with and have brought up to their CSA contacts
over the years? I have been doing searches in other CSA databases, such as
BHA and ABM, and find the same problem, with some inconsistencies, across
the platform. There is so much I do like about this interface (including
the fabulous results you get when searching all three databases at once..),
but this is really bugging me......
I would welcome any comments on this..and can send some additional examples
to those interested.
End of quiet rant....and ready for an ice cream or a dip in a cool pond
someplace.....
Sarah
Sarah W. Dickinson
Head of Reference and Collection Development
Frances Loeb Library
Harvard Design School
48 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2574 phone
617-496-5929 fax
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