On Monday, June 17, 2019, Melvyl will have a new, improved look and feel, while retaining the same functionality. Melvyl, a tool that supports research across the UCI campus, is the union catalog of University of California Libraries. Through this central database, researchers are able to access texts at any UC campus, which facilitates borrowing across the campuses. In order to conduct a successful search, the user does not need to specify a UC Library location or know the names of UC Campuses, making it easier to find the correct publication.
OCLC, the company that provides the Melvyl interface, made several changes to improve the search experience. One of the most noticeable changes is the cleaner, crisper search page. Extraneous information has been removed from the search page and the search box is the focus. Also with the new interface, searching for titles becomes a simple process.
Additional improvements include a clear display of filters to refine results, a prominent display of UC Irvine ownership reporting if the publication is in our collection or licensed resources, and easy-to-locate links to actions like “cite” “email” and “link.”
More information about the interface improvements can be found at https://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2019/03/21/worldcat-discovery-beta-user-interface-improvements/
Questions or comments? Please contact Cynthia Johnson, Head of Reference and the Grunigen Medical Library, at cynthiaj@uci.edu.