University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries’ website and its MadCat Catalog have many features that demonstrate the libraries’ efforts to provide users with resources that are responsive to user needs. Such efforts are evident in both the catalog’s design and its organization. For the most part, the efforts appear quite successful, especially for its primary audience – students at the University of Wisconsin.

The main library website is a cleanly designed portal that provides users with options and information in six categories: (i) research shortcuts, (ii) books/articles/databases, (iii) library services, (iv) information about the libraries, (v) help and guidance, and (vi) library news. For research shortcuts, the website contains the common textbox shortcut for users to search the library catalog, but it also contains a “QuickSearch for Articles” with a drop-down menu of various subject areas and a textbox with corresponding drop-down menus for users to search the “Top 10 Databases,” such as JSTOR, Google Scholar and the ProQuest Research Library. The website also reaches beyond the MadCat Catalog in providing options for books/articles/databases. Users can access WorldCat, the E-Resource Gateway, E-Books, the Madison Public Library Catalog, and other libraries directly from the library’s homepage. (Many of the resources are restricted to students and faculty of the University of Wisconsin, which is not surprising, but does diminish the usefulness of the website to other users of the website and MadCat Catalog.) The website also serves as an access point for those users with MadCat Accounts to see the items they currently have checked out, to renew items, and check their library fines and fees. The website also provides users access to the libraries’ extensive email alert and RSS feed services. Users can receive alerts and feeds from various libraries, such as the Law Library and the health sciences library, or on various subjects, such as agriculture, fine arts, or world history.

For help and guidance, the website describes the “Ask A Librarian” reference services that reference librarians provide users in person, by phone, email or instant messenger. Users can also access contact information for subject specialists who assist with in-depth research on a myriad of subjects. The website also provides users with a helpful collection of “Research Tips and Tricks,” which consists of videos and tipsheets on pertinent topics, such as “Too Many Search Results?” and “Need to Cite Articles, Books, or Web Pages?”

The libraries’ desire to make information accessible and useful to its users carries over into the MadCat Catalog itself. The Catalog has three distinct ways to search for information: (i) Basic Search, (ii) Guided Search, and (iii) Course Reserve Search. The Basic Search provides more options than its name implies. Users can search using a feature called “Words Anywhere,” which approximates a Google search in that it will “search for all terms entered in the search box, no matter what order the terms are entered and no matter where the terms appear in in a MadCat record.” Basic Search also contains search options, such as keyword Boolean, call number browse, and OCLC number, in addition to the standard title and author searches.

The Guided Search allows users to search for keywords in numerous drop-down menu categories, ranging from ISBN to Title to Publisher Name to Internet Links to Opus/Thematic Number. The Course Reserve Search allows students to search for items on reserve from drop-down menus for instructor, department, course, and section. In addition to provide the various search methods, the MadCat Catalog takes the extra step of providing extensive Search Hints directly below the search box for each search type. So, with virtually no effort, users can glance below and presumably improve their search results in the MadCat Catalog.

Upon retrieving a particular record in the Catalog, a user finds detailed information about the item, including Library of Congress call number, LC subject headings, OCLC and ISBN numbers, internet links to table of content information, location and current status of the item. The Catalog also provides users with the option of emailing, printing, or saving any entry. MARC records are available for each entry, and users can have the results formatted in UTF-8 (Unicode Transformation Format), as well. Faculty, staff, and students from any University of Wisconsin campus can also search and request items from any other University of Wisconsin system library and receive the item within two to four business days.

Another special feature of the MadCat Catalog is called “New in MadCat,” which allows users to search the books, journals and titles that have been cataloged within the last four weeks in any particular campus library. This search feature also provides helpful hints on how to conduct a successful search within the “New in MadCat” lists. The library also makes available an RSS feed for particular subjects and campus libraries based on the “New in MadCat” lists.

Overall, I was impressed with the MadCat Catalog. It appears to provide all of the features one would expect from a major university library catalog and more. I particularly like the way it goes to great lengths to avoid a “cookie-cutter” approach to research, but rather, it gives users many ways to find items in the libraries and to receive the results in a variety of formats. It also does not assume that its users understand the best way to research its catalog; rather, it seeks to provide hints and instructions at every opportunity. There is room for aesthetic improvement (e.g., it could add images of book jacket covers and choose a more attractive font and spacing for its record entries) and improvements in accessibility for special needs patrons. However, for the most part, the Catalog appears to conform to accepted standards for library cataloging and do a very good job of serving the needs of those who utilize the University of Wisconsin library system.