TRIPOD GETS NEW LOOK AND ADDED FEATURES

Users of the online Tri-College library catalog may notice that Tripod has adopted a sleek new look over the summer. But the changes to Tripod are more than cosmetic, says Outreach and Information Technology Librarian Susan Turkel. The new user interface offers a number of new features and improvements, including advanced searches, enhanced sorting and the ability to save searches to re-run later.

"The new interface takes Tripod beyond the book paradigm," said Turkel. "Easy-to-use tabs allow users to search for journals, videos, online resources and music, with appropriate examples of keyword, author and genre searches for each medium. When the results come back, part of the browsing display is an icon representing the format of each item, whether journal or book or DVD, so that users can immediately distinguish among types of media."

"Another really nice new feature is the ability to save a search history," Turkel continued. "You can log in and search for something, save the search, and then check back later to see if any new materials have shown up."

Turkel stresses that Bryn Mawr users can borrow materials from Haverford and Swarthmore, and they need not leave one campus to check out or return an item in a library on another campus. "An orange 'request' box appears at the top right-hand side of every record. When you request something from another campus, you can come to Canaday, Collier or Carpenter and get it the next day, because a Tri-Co library van makes deliveries daily."

Turkel and Information Acquisition and Delivery Coordinator Berry Chamness represented the Bryn Mawr Libraries on the six-person Tri-College team that oversaw the renovation project this summer. Team members did usability testing with a variety of users on each of the three campuses, beginning in May. The team members met frequently and also shared ideas, observations and focus-group results through a project blog that got a lot of traffic as the summer progressed.

"The usability testing was a real eye-opener for us, " Turkel said. "It really showed us ways the interface could be improved that we wouldn't have been able to see by ourselves, because we knew how to use the system too well."

All three Bryn Mawr libraries will exhibit poster displays next week to help orient users to the new interface and make them aware of new features. To comment on the new design, visit http://trilogy.brynmawr.edu/trico/feedback.htm.

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