Creating a specialized music search interface in a traditional OPAC environment

Abstract

Purpose – Undergraduate music majors often search for resources in a limited number of formats. This developed a specialized search interface which might better support the needs of undergraduate music majors. The aim of this paper is to improve music resource discovery now, without spending any additional funds.Design/methodology/approach – A literature search was conducted to inform the design process. The web search capabilities of the library's existing catalog system were then used to develop a specialized music search interface. Finally, user testing was conducted to obtain qualitative feedback on the effectiveness of the new interface compared with the general‐purpose library catalog interface.Findings – This project confirmed that an effective specialized music search interface could be created at no additional cost and with minimal effort, and that coupling a keyword search with pre‐search format limiting was an effective strategy.Originality/value – The paper provides a low‐cost approach to impr...