The SmartBrowse Series: Mastering Filters

In this final installment of the SmartBrowse Series, you’ll learn how to use filters to quickly narrow your SmartBrowse search results. Here are five ways using filters can help you find exactly what you are looking for:

1. Filtering by date
I only want to see titles in my search that have street dates between July 2010 and October 2010.

1.Search by a keyword in the SmartBrowse search box.

2. Make your selection in the search summary.

3. Click Filter Criteria box.

4. Click the Released Between radio button and select the month and year restrictions from the drop down menus.

5. Click filter in the bottom left hand corner to find your results.

2. Filtering by New Releases
I want to make a display about animals featuring the newest best selling titles.

1. Select Top 100 Best Selling from the search summary. This will pull up Audiobooks, Blu-rays, CDs, DVDs, and Playaways in your search results.

2. In the filter criteria box, select new releases in the last six months and future releases.

3. Click filter in the bottom left hand corner to find your results.

3. Filtering by Multiple Restrictions
I want my search to contain only full-screen DVDs that street between July 2010 and October 2010 with a rating of PG-13 or lower.

1. Search by keyword in the SmartBrowse search box and make your selection in the search summary.

2. Click the Filter Criteria box.

3. Set the released between restrictions to suit your requirements.

4. Select exclude videos rated beyond. Choose the PG-13 rating from the drop-down menu.

5. Select include only full screen video products.

6. Click filter in the bottom left hand corner to find your results.

4. Filtering by Explicit Lyrics
I want to update my rap/hip-hop CD collection with the newest titles, but I don’t want any CDs with parental advisories.

1. Select Most Recent 100 from the search summary.

2. In the filter criteria box, select exclude music with explicit lyrics.

3. Click filter in the bottom left hand corner to find your results.

4. Change your mind? Selecting the filter off button will quickly revert your search.

5. Filtering by Format
I want to update my collection of romance audiobooks, but I am only interested in the unabridged versions.

1. Search by keyword in the SmartBrowse search box and make your selection in the search summary.

2. In the filter criteria box, select exclude abridged audiobooks.

3. Click filter in the bottom left hand corner to find your results.

4. Remember, you can sort your results further by clicking the column headings. For example, click Released to sort your results in chronological order according to release date.

Once you are satisfied with your search results you can easily add all the titles to SmartCart where you can add branch distribution, adjust quantities, and apply funds.

1. Click Add to Cart.

2. Click the (+) to expand the instructions options. Here you can customize your order.

3. Select use these choices to add every product in the list and then click Add.

These are just a few examples of how to use filters to narrow your SmartBrowse search. This concludes our SmartBrowse Series, but look for our upcoming series about using SmartCart. You can also look forward to our Collection Development tools series, which will feature posts on our Calendar, New Release Panel, Cat2Cart, and QuickLinks.

In the meantime, play around with the SmartBrowse filters and share your thoughts and experiences here as comments.

The SmartBrowse Series: Sorting and Exporting

In the series’ first installment, you learned five ways to search specific in SmartBrowse. Here, I’ll show you how to easily organize your SmartBrowse findings by sorting and exporting.

Sorting
After you make your selection on the Search Summary page, SmartBrowse will direct you to a sortable list of search results.

Here you can arrange the information alphabetically or numerically in ascending or descending order by clicking on the column names.

For example, clicking on price will sort the titles from lowest to highest. Clicking again will reorganize the information in reverse order.

 The price sorts titles from lowest to highest price, then highest to lowest price. 

Similarly, this action works for stock number, title media, misc, genre, release date, and sales rank.

The released date sorts titles from newest to oldest, then oldest to newest.

Exporting
Once you are satisfied with your search, you can transfer your results to an Excel spreadsheet.

To do this, click the Export button.

After a brief download, Excel will open and display a spreadsheet of your SmartBrowse search results.

Now that you know how to sort and export in SmartBrowse, look for our final installment of the SmartBrowse series about filtering. In the meantime, play around with SmartBrowse yourself and share your insights and experiences here as comments.

Midwest Tape Adds Auto-Complete to Site Search Bar

Unsure of a spelling? Fuzzy on a name? Term on the tip of your tongue?

Midwest Tape has launched Auto-Complete, a new website feature that will better aid searches. Now when you use our site’s Search Bar, Auto-Complete will offer search suggestions.

Using Auto-Complete with SmartBrowse
Enter a term in the Search Bar. Note that fewer letters typed in the Search Bar will produce a wider array of suggestions. Likewise, more letters typed will produce more specific suggestions.

Upon entering the search term, a dropdown list of suggestions appears. With SmartBrowse, Auto-Complete will make suggestions related to format, people, titles collections, and categories.

 If you select a format suggestion, results appear in a sortable SmartBrowse list:

If you select a people or title suggestion, results that match the suggestion appear in SmartBrowse’s Search Summary:

Person selection “Harry Paul” results

Title selection “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” Results

Using Auto-Complete with Search
Uncheck the “Use SmartBrowse” checkbox underneath the site’s Search Bar and then begin typing your search term. Note that fewer letters typed in the Search Bar will produce a wider array of suggestions. Likewise, more letters typed will produce more specific suggestions.

Once again a dropdown list of suggestions will appear, but suggestions will pertain to format and titles only.

 If you select a format suggestion, pertaining results will appear in a Search Results list.

If you select a title suggestion, product details for that title will appear as the Search Results.

What do you think of auto-complete? Share your thoughts and questions here as comments.

The SmartBrowse Series: Five Ways to Search Specific on SmartBrowse

Search is a great way to find what you’re looking for when you know exactly what you’re looking for. But what happens when you just have a keyword in mind or a just a fuzzy idea of what you’re seeking? When searching in basic Search, general keywords can produce laundry lists of results with no organizational scheme—or worse, no results at all! Check out what happened when I typed “Big.”

Fortunately, Midwest Tape designed SmartBrowse as a tool for finding specific results with general inquiries. I decided to play around with SmartBrowse myself and develop some tips for successful searching. Here are five ways to find specific results with general searches using SmartBrowse:

1.   Shop selectively using category searches:

“I want to enhance the action section of my library’s DVD collection.  But I want Academy Award winners only.”

1. Search “Academy Award” in the SmartBrowse search box. 

2. Under Categories, select DVD results in line with VIDEO::FICTION::ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS.

3. Sort by Genre to view all Academy Award films categorized by the Action genre.

4. Scroll through the listings; view product details, Academy Awards won, and Rotten Tomatoes ratings without leaving your search. 

2.   Search series names to find all titles related:

“I need to make sure I have all the audiobooks in the Anita Blake series!”

1. Search “Anita Blake” in the SmartBrowse search field.
2. Expand the Series results in the Search Results screen by clicking the plus symbol.

3. Select the Audiobook results in line with Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. Your results will appear in a sortable list.

4. Click on column headings to sort your list and identify the titles you need to round out your series. You can even scroll through the listings and view product details without leaving your search.

3.   Round out collections by focusing on people:

“I want to beef up my Bruce Springsteen CD collection.”

1. Search “Bruce Springsteen” in the SmartBrowse search box.
2. Expand the People results, and select the CD media format. Your results will appear in a sortable list.

3. Click on column headings to sort your list. Try sorting by Sales Rank or Release Date to quickly identify hot Springsteen titles.
4. Scroll through the listings; view album tracks, product details, and AllMusic Guide ratings without leaving your search.

4.   Enhance your international collection while adding to your language-learning selection by searching languages:

“I have Korean-speaking patrons who want to learn English, and English-speaking patrons who want to learn Korean, and they’re all interested in Korean films and music!”

1. Search “Korean” in the SmartBrowse search box.
2. Expand the Language results.

1. Select Audiobook results to view Korean for English Speakers and English for Korean Speakers titles.
2. Click CD results to view Korean music.
3. Select DVD or Blu-ray results to view Korean films.
3. After reviewing results for your format of interest always click “Return to Original Search” to return to the SmartBrowse Search Results screen. 

5.   Got a keyword in mind?  Look for collections that relate.

“2010 Emmy nominations were just announced!  I want to shop those titles!”

1. Search “Emmy” in the SmartBrowse search box.
2. Expand the Collections results.
3. Select the DVD format for 2010 EMMY NOMINATIONS; results will appear in a sortable list.

4. Click on column headings to sort your list. Try sorting by Sales Rank or Release Date to quickly identify hot titles.
5. Scroll through the listings; view product details, Emmy nominations, and Rotten Tomatoes reviews without leaving your search.

These are just a few examples of how to best use SmartBrowse for collection development. Play around with SmartBrowse yourself; share your insights and experiences here as comments.

SmartBrowse: A Closer Look

Recently, Midwest Tape posted a blog about the basics of SmartBrowsing. Here, we present a more in-depth look at the advanced search engine, detailing a variety of ways to organize your results for a quick and efficient find.

First, entering fewer keywords will return more titles, so for optimal results enter as few keywords as possible. For example, try “Fresh Prince” instead of “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Once a user enters keywords, SmartBrowse categorizes the results in an expandable list that divides products by titles exactly matching or containing the search word, categories, series, collections, publisher names, people, and numbers. The list of expandable subcategories makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for and ignore what you’re not. Additionally, selecting the expand/collapse (+/–) box will expand or collapse your search results so that you see only  the results you want.

Click image to enlarge.

Also, if there are more than 100 listings for a category you can opt to only view the top 100 bestselling titles or the 100 most recent titles. By doing this, you are able to quickly find the newest and most popular titles.

Click image to enlarge.

After making your selection, you can arrange information alphabetically or numerically in ascending or descending order by clicking on the column names. For example, clicking on price will sort the titles by the least expensive to the most expensive. Clicking again will reorganize the information so that the most expensive products list first. Similarly, this action works for stock number, title media, misc, genre, release date, sales rank, and price.

 Click image to enlarge.

Another way to manage your SmartBrowse search is to further narrow your results. By clicking on the filter criteria box, you are able to restrict your findings by release date, format, and ratings.

Click image to enlarge.

To continue perusing through the subcategories in the search summary list, simply select the Return to Original Search button. It is essential to select this button because clicking the browser’s back button will return you to the Midwest Tape homepage, thus closing your current results.

 Click image to enlarge.

 

Want to learn more about SmartBrowsing? Watch our tutorial.
Have you used SmartBrowse? How has it aided your acquisitions experience?