Ok, wormholes is a little extreme, but I've been watching some back episodes of the TV show Sliders about traveling to parallel dimensions and whatnot. That's kind of like clicking around in new tabs, following links, and getting lost in the interwebs, right? This post addresses some accessibility concerns with the TJLP database LibraryThing records.
With our TJLP LibraryThing catalog records, we're creating a rich, interactive bibliographic information-session for users. The records that I've been dealing with describing the Wythe bequest are especially complex - filled with lots of data to tell the story of the book coming into Jefferson's library, its representation there, and then its possible dispersal to Congress or somewhere else. The records are all formatted in the same way, which hopefully prevents confusion. But with this amount of information on one record there are other variables that influence access and user-friendliness. LibraryThing is a social environment, and the catalog record reinforces this by linking to information resources - other catalog records, transcriptions, manuscript images, author pages, etc. The potential for getting lost down rabbit holes is great. So how best to account for that? In code to open in new tabs or windows? In help/user guides explaining system search and retrieval? Also, we can't account for users' personal browser settings affecting some of these actions. And do users know better/prefer to user their back arrows or close new tabs/windows?
We've tried to present a lot of useful and enriched information in an organized manner in these records. Retrieving and navigating that information likewise needs to be an organized, efficient process in order to successfully convey information in this environment. Interesting quandaries...
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