HOLLIS V. HOLLIS Classic

by Jason Pannone

Friday, September 11, 2009 at 10:21 AM EDT

Good morning, readers!

Over the last several months, HCL has rolled a new search interface for HOLLIS. But, this doesn’t mean that we’ve left the older interface behind — far from it. Now re-branded as “HOLLIS Classic,” the older interface is still available for you to use.

Both HOLLIS and HOLLIS Classic can search Harvard’s library catalog, but what are the advantages of each, and when should you use them? My HCL colleagues have come up with the following cheat sheet:

HOLLIS

• Easy-to-use, intuitive interface
• Relevance-ranked results
• One-click search refinement – filter searches by publication, date, format, language and more
• More searchable tables of contents
• Built in spell checker

HOLLIS Classic

• Browse subject headings and author names
• Search by call numbers
• Search using non-Latin characters
• Refine searches using exact phrases
• Powerful “Expanded Search” feature for more precise searches

In short, both interfaces have their place in your research toolkit. When used in tandem — just as when you use, e.g., JSTOR and Academic Search Premier in tandem — your searching becomes that much more effective and powerful.

If you are interested in learning more about the interfaces, or are interested in seeing a demonstration, please let me know. I’d love to show you!

———————————————————————————–

For Firefox users, check out this post by Adrienne Carlson, “50 Firefox Extensions to Turn Google Into the Ultimate Research Tool.” Some very cool stuff here.

This article originally appeared on Robbins Library Notes.