ALEG

What I've done

• Applied Tessa's author and publisher series selections

• Applied several sets of changes to publishers and place names. These caused a few problems due to the tricky nature of the cross-checks which weren't initially present in the update program, resulting in some badly scrambled data (cities of NZ becoming parts of a Melbourne suburb, etc). This has been sorted out, and both lists are looking a lot better.

• Loaded the AMLC authors, part 1

• Many minor edit and format changes resulting from training feedback (more to do!)

• Creation of pending update history lists for the database administrators (but they can't denote 'approval' yet)

• Added work type/genre search options to the "edit home" page, added periodical issue searching options to the manifestation selection dialog

• Added image ID field to the agent attribute set, which currently just records an image number at NLA for an author. Changed stylesheet to generate image reference and link to details at NLA for agents with an image id.

• Fixed a problem with periodical issues where the manifestations created from the AUSTLIT source references had a "first known date", but no manifestation ("publication") year.

• Add general edits based on XSLT Schema (the Schematron approach).
• Revisit output formatting (especially to show all the newly added attributes and relationships) and search screens.
• Drama data - work out what we need to store to record a "performance"

• Investigate a problem with first-known-date not being set for works added to a manifestation after the manifestation has been created (may be intermittant?)

• Investigate a problem with diacritics (AMLC bio's) being mangled when updated

• Discuss the approach we'll take to the Lu Rees non bibliographic data

• More changes based on training feedback

• Enhance expression/manifestation selection search

• Promote all existing expression titles to work level, ditto for agents

• Start coding the program to merge in the BAL data

• Remove the test works and agents added during training

• It is good to see more data being loaded and all the updating being done by people.

Links of the week - Usability

• Success Rate: The Simplest Usability Metric - Jakob Nielsen

  The best usability tests involve frequent small tests, rather than a few big ones. You gain maximum insight by working with 4-5 users and asking them to think out loud during the test. As soon as users identify a problem, you fix it immediately (rather than continue testing to see how bad it is). You then test again to see if the "fix" solved the problem.

• Are Users Stupid? - Jakob Nielsen

  Opponents of the usability movement claim that it focuses on stupid users and that most users can easily overcome complexity. In reality, even smart users prefer pursuing their own goals to navigating idiosyncratic designs. As Web use grows, the price of ignoring usability will only increase.

  ...Typically, when project managers observe their design undergoing a usability test, their initial reaction is: Where did you find such stupid users?