Library IT has been working on inserting book cover images (from either Syndetics or Te Puna) and TOCS from Syndetics into catalogue records. It has been a bit of a marathon effort – the vagaries of the Horizon code, the html layout of hip and the xslt that create the html layout have made the job very challenging.
However, we have a working example, and are now seeking feedback – within limits outlined below. Please look do a keyword search in the test version of the catalogue (frogs gives some results with images) and scroll down to see the image in the browse list. Then click to see the full record and see the image in that. Interestingly, in the browse list, we can display the Syndetics image , or we can display both images, but we can’t display only the Te Puna one when there isn’t a Syndetics image. So we’ve gone for displaying only the Syndetics one in the browse list. On the full display it can display the one from Te Puna if there isn’t one from Syndetics. Yes it’s confusing!!!
As an example look at bib # 1078889 which only has a Te Puna image. Search keywords “land promise” to see it in the browse list.
A link to tables of contents will appear under the image. At the moment this opens a popup window which may be hidden behind your browser -we are working on this. The position of this link is far from ideal and we are very aware of that, but we are VERY limited as to where it can go and this is the best choice of a bad lot. It also means that in some records there will be Contents field with a table of contents from the bib record, a link to a table of contents in the Online access field, and another link to the table of contents from Syndetics under the image. See bib# 924761. This is because we’ve got so much information from so many sources and we can’t suppress any of them in any particular record without suppressing them for everything. We have tried, but haven’t found any solutions because of how the hip record is created from the code and the xslt.
Another consideration is that the cover image retrieved may NOT match the image on the cover of the book actually on our shelf!
I think it is great! It makes it much easier when you are looking for a specific book you know when there are multiple editions and having the TOC when there wasn’t one previously is excellent!
Awesome!
Deborah
Yes, this is great.
Looks nice, espec. TOC info.
Is it at all possible to estimate how often the cover image won’t match our actual holding?
‘the cover image retrieved may NOT match the image on the cover of the book actually on our shelf!’
Dave C.
Given that we rebind some with all sorts of covers I wouldn’t have thought that it was possible to guess the number. However it may be useful to have a function where you can switch off display cover for a single record in cases where it may cause confusion.
It is a kind of take or leave it thing. We were unable to get rid of the NZ duplicates on the summary screen so only the Syndetic covers are showing. We figured that what we have provided is a lot better than nothing. It is not possible to guess how many of the covers will not match our version, and it will change over time. Anne
Have seen a few black box type images. Is there a reason they are displayed? Are they placeholders?
I’ve seen some of the black box images as well. I’ve sent an email to Bowker Support asking what causes them, and if we should report them as we find them. They have a specific email address to report, for example, images that are matching on the wrong ISBN.