Catalog Search plugin

[Lincoln Mullen]

I've written a plugin that uses the Dublin Core subject element to
create searches in Archive Grid, JSTOR, Google Books, Google Scholar,
the Library of Congress, and WorldCat. The idea is to make fuzzy
connections to data in other catalogs items that are using LoC
subjects. The plugin is intended in the first place for my research
database (see the example below) but I hope it has a wider use.

Plugin: https://github.com/lmullen/plugin-CatalogSearch
Example: http://americanconverts.org/items/show/5

The plugin probably needs some work before it's generally useful. I
plan to add the ability to select which links should be added, and to
let the user generate custom queries, as in Google Chrome's custom
searches. If anyone has thoughts, I'd be glad to know (1) whether it
would be useful to make the links from a field besides the subject,
(2) if there are any other generally applicable searches I should add,
and, of course, (3) if you have find any problems with the plugin.

All the best,
Lincoln Mullen

[Patrick Murray-John]

Lincoln,

Looks useful and solid to me! I can especially see it working very
nicely in combination with LC Suggest, which autosuggests values from
various authorities.

That combo would suggest that it might be helpful to make the search
happen on different fields besides subject.

Two twists I noticed. First, it assumes only one value for the field --
If I've put in more than one subject, only the first gets searched.
Clearly, though, providing a search on multiple value means a lot more
going on in the interface.

Second -- again as part of the combo with LCSuggest -- the stripping of
punctuation for $subject_clean means some LC subjects get a little
mangled. "Harlem Renaissance--European influences" becomes "Harlem
RenaissanceEuropean influences" for the search sites that use
$subject_clean. This might be tricky to handle in any sane and
consistent way across metadata standards, though.

It looks great, and do think it will be super useful! Thanks!
Patrick

[Lincoln Mullen]

Thanks for the ideas, Patrick. Fixing the way that the plugin cleans the subject should be straightforward since I'm assuming that people are using LoC authorities, probably with the LC Suggest plugin. I'll have to give some thought to the multiple subjects. More to do before I submit it to the Omeka plugin page!

Thanks,
Lincoln

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[Lincoln Mullen]

I've updated the Catalog Search plugin and submitted it to the
WordPress site for Omeka plugins. I've used Patrick's suggestions to
improve how the simple subject is cleaned up for certain catalogs. The
biggest change is that admins can now add their own catalog links to
the plugin, and modify or remove the ones that come by default.

Here is the repository: https://github.com/lmullen/plugin-CatalogSearch


All the best,
Lincoln

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