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Hi Sarah Beth, I implemented something like this on our AZ page at Macalester College. The wording we went with was "Find Research Databases". I also put a link below the search box that says "What am I searching?" that goes to a brief explanation. I capture the searches, and I try to correct some common spelling mistakes. We don't have a huge infrastructure behind this, and there are no type-ahead suggestions at this point. We also make some general suggestions when the search results are empty. And based on some sporadic reviewing of the keywords I try to route users to certain databases. In some cases, I have added tags for databases based on words linked to assignments. For example, if you search for dinosaur, you get BioOne, or Romeo and Juliet brings up a Shakespeare database. If you search for a state or a country you get geographical databases. It would be nice to have some great semantic engine behind this that is not too difficult to implement. I am guessing the majority of users don't read the explanatory text or headings very carefully - some user testing would be great. Looking at the keywords, the majority of searches tend to have been entered more than one time. About 58% of the keywords have entered been more than 5 times. The most commonly searched for items are well-known database names. Johan -- Johan Oberg Digital Scholarship and Services Librarian DeWitt Wallace Library Macalester College St Paul, MN 55105 651-696-6003 http://www.macalester.edu/library/ On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 07:22, 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) > -- Johan Oberg Digital Scholarship and Services Librarian DeWitt Wallace Library Macalester College St Paul, MN 55105 651-696-6003 http://www.macalester.edu/library/