Hi David,

You might want to consider an advanced search interface that offers a varying number of options. We've done this to a certain extent in the PKP Metadata Harvester for schemas more complex than Dublin Core. An example of a harvester that has some MODS in it is at http://harvesters.sfu.ca/chodarr/index.php/search, if you want to see how we implemented this (click on the "More fields" button).

We're currently rewriting the Harvester so I'd be interested in hearing what you settle on. That particular application suffers from the same problem you're describing with WorldCat -- a very rich metadata set to search against, plus in the Harvester's case, new schemas can be added fairly easily, and we don't want admins to have to rewrite the search form when they add a new schema.

Mark

Mark Jordan
Head of Library Systems
W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
Voice: 778.782.5753 / Fax: 778.782.3023
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----- "David Walker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I'm working on an advanced search screen as part of our WorldCat API
> project.
> 
> WorldCat has dozens of indexes and a ton of limiters.  So many, in
> fact, that it's rather daunting trying to design it all in a way that
> isn't just a big dump of fields and check boxes that only a cataloger
> could decipher.
> 
> So I'm looking for examples of good advanced search screens (for
> bibliographic databases or otherwise) to gain some inspiration. 
> Thanks!
> 
> --Dave
> 
> ==================
> David Walker
> Library Web Services Manager
> California State University
> http://xerxes.calstate.edu