I guess what I really like to see is returning the library user to the
catalog to the item they've found.

For example: I follow a link from a fiction title to LibraryThing and browse
around from one title to another similar title to some not so similar title
in another genre and decide I'd like to get it from my library. I want a
link right there that will take me back to my library and get me as close to
that record in my library catalog as possible.

We are doing this right now with NoveList. Of course this works with our
catalog because we use GET strings. For a catalog limited to POST, this
would not work.

On 3/25/08, Joe Hourcle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 25 Mar 2008, Jay Roos wrote:
>
> > Whenever I decide whether to link from our catalog to something
> external, I
> > always want to know how I bring the patron back once they've found
> something
> > they're interested in. Do you have or have you considered a way to close
> the
> > loop and bring someone who followed a link in the catalog back to the
> > catalog?
>
>
> One of the few useful things that came from that whole HTML Frames
> confusion was the ability to specify a 'target' to links.  if you use a
> target name that's not an existing frame, it'll pop up in a new window.
> (without requiring javascript to handle the popup).  if you use a
> consistent name, it'll recycle the existing window:
>
>         <a href='some_url' target='LibraryThing'>some text</a>
>
> See the HTML specs for more details:
>         http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/present/frames.html#h-16.3
>
>
> There are also some common keywords to use (_top, _blank, _new), which are
> widely supported, but I can't find them in the HTML docs.
>
> ...
>
> so basically -- someone clicks on the link, it comes in a new window, and
> they can close the window to return to where they were.
>
> ... the issue with sessions timing out still holds, but as the catalog is
> still loaded, you might be able to do something with javascript to warn
> the user that they might time out.
>
>
> -Joe
>



--
Jay Roos
Computer & Information Systems Coordinator
Great River Regional Library
405 W. St. Germain
St. Cloud, MN 56301
(320) 650-2534