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Hi Chris, I like it. We've been playing with something similar. We start with keyword (instead of the the left-anchored search) and then list the book titles along with the subject headings attached to them. THEN we gather up all the subject headings and re-display them. We're finding this list of SH's to be too long, so we are playing with gathering up only the most "popular" title's and limiting our gathering up of subject headings to only those most popular books. Popularity is a number based on Holds, Circs, Copies, Media types purchased. ( and date(s) purchased?) We've only just started playing with this, it was nice to be able to play with yours and see that others are thinking along the same lines. Kevin -- Kevin Kierans Director of Libraries Thompson-Nicola Regional District 300 - 465 Victoria Street Kamloops, British Columbia V2C 2A9 Voice: (250) 374-8866 Fax: (250) 374-8355 -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Gray Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 7:27 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [CODE4LIB] Exploring OPAC Subject Headings I wrote a bit of code today that I think is kinda nifty. I was trying to illustrate some ideas that I've been kicking around for a while. In the tables underlying our OPAC (Oracle under Voyager), there is a table linking subject heading IDs to bib record IDs. Starting with some subject headings, I look up all the bib IDs linked to them. Then I go back the other direction and grab _all_ the heading IDs linked to those bib IDs, so most of the time new headings are picked up. Then the user can select from the returned headings and go around again, widening and narrowing the search each time. At each stop along the way, every subject heading is linked to a canned search of the OPAC. So far I've found it a much more natural and powerful way to find things by subject than the OPAC itself. It's a single, straightforward ColdFusion page. Most of the few hours it took to cook up went into getting the SQL right. I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone who'd like to take a kick at the tires. You can try it out at <http://testtube.uwaterloo.ca/cpgray/sl/subject.cfm>. Chris Gray Systems Analyst University of Waterloo Library "The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office." -Robert Frost