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EBSCO Publishing and NoveList Debut a New Interface

EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) along with the creators of readers' advisory database NoveList have released a new interface for all NoveList and NoveList Plus products. The new interface will include all the characteristics librarians enjoy along with changes that make recommendations easier to obtain, searching more intuitive, and allows quick access to more content than ever. The updated interface is designed to help librarians and their patrons find their next great read. The redesign incorporated a variety of suggestions from readers' advisory experts and librarians.

One of the major new features is the use of "Appeal" words such as "fast-paced" or "character-driven" which will better allow the user to find different types of books. The new interface also has a strong focus on recommendations. Reading recommendations are available directly from the homepage-which allows for easier access and fewer clicks and they also include a hover-able pop-up window that can be used to narrow down genre choices.

Browsable lists of recommendations for similar books and authors will be shown on the search result pages allowing users to find numerous titles of interest. Finally, each recommendation will feature transparent reasoning from NoveList experts as to why the title is being recommended. With the new interface, enhancements to the popular print functionality make it even easier for librarians to print out reading suggestions for patrons whether they are looking for series, title, or author suggestions.

The new interface also features improved searching capabilities. The search box now takes a more prominent spot on the homepage. Search results are also storable and have three display options-list, text, and grid. The list display offers a jacket image, summary and additional book information. The text form omits the book jacket and the summary allowing the user to view more results at once. The grid format offers ten search results at a time and presents as a grid with images of each book jacket plus a hover-able pop-up window can be used to find out more information about each book.

A "Teaching with Books" section has been added along with the new interface. This section will be especially helpful to school librarians and public librarians working with homeschoolers and students as it includes content based on grade and common curriculum topics.

Source: EBSCO Publishing