As others have noted, a little user testing goes a long way.

Anyway, on our upcoming site we've opted for A-Z buttons + an
autocomplete box labelled "Quick Database Browse" (although I don't
think this particular bit of language has been tested yet). Both of
these are browse options and assume the user knows the name of the
database they want; if they don't, we'd like to route them through our
research guides:

http://www.ithacalibrary.com/lib2010/articles/

Andrew

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 8:22 AM, Sarah Weeks <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Long time lurker, first time poster.
> I have a little usability question I was hoping someone could give me advice
> on.
> I'm updating the databases page on our website and we'd like to add a search
> box that would search certain fields we have set up for our databases
> (title, vendor, etc...) so that even if someone doesn't remember the first
> word in the title, they can quickly find the database they're looking
> through without having to scroll through the whole A-Z list.
> My question is: if we add a search box to our main database page, how can we
> make it clear that it's for searching FOR a database and not IN a database?
> Some of the choices we've considered are:
> Seach for a database:
> Search this list:
> Don't remember the name of the database? Search here:
>
> I'm not feeling convinced by any of them. I'm afraid when people see a
> search box they're not going to bother reading the text but will just assume
> it's a federated search tool.
>
> Any advice?
>
> -Sarah Beth
>
> --
> Sarah Beth Weeks
> Interim Head Librarian of Technical Services and Systems
> St Olaf College Rolvaag Memorial Library
> 1510 St. Olaf Avenue
> Northfield, MN 55057
> 507-786-3453 (office)
> 717-504-0182 (cell)
>



-- 
Andrew Darby
Web Services Librarian
Ithaca College Library
http://www.ithaca.edu/library/
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