The well connected catalogue

Abstract

In an age where our users expect to be able to point and click, links through to other works by the same author, same subject or same series are standard features of a web catalogue that provide relevant retrieval wherever good authority control is practiced. This is an advantage of web catalogue versus web browser searches. The assiduous cataloguer also provides rich information about related works that can help users to find what they really need. If presented as succinctly-labelled clickable links, the user is likely to take advantage of this information. Using the Bib-Linking functionality supplied by Endeavor in WebVoyage, the University of Adelaide Library has been able to provide extended links in its catalogue to lead its users to works related in specific ways. To date these include analysed titles that are part of a serial, earlier and later journal titles, links between different format versions of the same title such as electronic and print, and links to titles belonging to electronic datasets. Hot linking to outside resources from URLs in a variety of fields, including notes, has enabled the Library to link to many other related digital resources or documents. Online contents and abstracts, licence agreements and online indexes for individual print journals are some examples that provide more depth, less clutter in the catalogue and better information that assists the user in choice of item.