Category — Web Site

Please add searching by author to the Find a Specific Article page. Thanks.

With the Find a Specific Article function, the data used to make a direct link to an article is the journal title or ISSN, volume number, issue number, start page of the article and the year it was published.  Due to the difficulties in providing correct author information (misspellings, incorrect name, multiple articles by the same author, etc.), it can make it more difficult to successfully link to an article.  The libraries offer other tools to identify articles by author, including searching Summon <http://missouri.summon.serialssolutions.com> or one of the subject databases <http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/search/databases/subject.aspx>.

I like the Merlin option of texting a call number to your phone, but it would be GREAT if you guys had a smartphone app for streamlined database searches and even cooler if it included a library map with a book locator!  Just a thought.
Thanks for the suggestion. We do have a mobile website that I hope you find useful. There are also a few databases that have apps available. You can find the list of databases with mobile websites and apps here: http://libraryguides.missouri.edu/mobiledatabases.

Would the library consider creating podcasts of library events such as the Banned Books Week Lecture and the Open Access Lecture and Panel Discussion for staff and students who are unable to attend them?

Many of our events are videotaped and will be made available in the online digital repository, MOspace. But it would probably be possible for us to create a page on our website that links to all of these events. Thank you for the suggestion.

On pages like this one, it might be easier to find things if they were in alphabetical order: http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/about/equipment.htm

Thank you for this suggestion. We will be making the change.

Could you please bring back the options for searching by author, title,keyword, etc., on the main page?  It’s not helpful to have the location option on the first page of “books and more” without having the option to put what you’re actually searching for.

It would be even nicer to have the “Books and More” tab on the main library page, and not the “Summon” feature, which has yet to bring up anything useable in my searches.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Thank you for your comment. The Libraries’ Web Advisory Group has discussed your suggestion. Although they will not be making your suggested change at this time, they will keep this idea in mind (along with comments from other users and usability testing) when making future adjustments to the main Libraries page.

The MULibraries website system may well be the most organized, well conceived, convenient online resource affiliated with the campus.

Thanks! We aim to please.

The book location guide on the library website needs to be easier to find. Right now, it’s under Course Resources, and I forget that every single time I try to find it, resulting in 20 minutes of wasted time and frustration. I like to get my library trips planned out before I get to Ellis, and if one of those little yellow slips isn’t on hand, I should be able to access it from the internet with ease.

The book location guide can also be reached directly from inside MERLIN. You just click on the link to MU Ellis from inside any individual book record, and the location guide will pop up in another window. As an added feature, one can also copy any call number, follow that MU Ellis link, click the “Help Me Find My Book” link in the left sidebar, and paste the call number into the search box that appears. Maps showing the floor location and approximate shelf location of the book will appear. Shelf numbers should not be considered exact, as books may have shifted.

Longer-term, there’s a gateway redesign process underway, and we’ll be looking at our most frequently used links from the gateway, and foregrounding them. Should this link emerge as frequently used, it will be given more prominence. Categories such as “Course Resources” and the placement of links within them is likely to be rethought as well. All library users who would like to participate in the redesign process as usability testers are welcome to contact Shannon Cary at carysn@missouri.edu.