Rob Houghton wrote:I sound like I'm picking flies here, and I'm really not...but it sort of shows how user-unfriendly The Cave search facility sometimes is. If I wanted to look at all cassettes, for example, it would be more or less impossible.
As the setting up of the search had nothing to do with me I think I should defend it here when you call it 'user-unfriendly'. Surely anybody looking for cassettes would go straight to the Audio section where they would find all the cassettes, it would be daft putting 'cassettes' into search when it should be obvious where they all are.
It would be rather like if you wanted to search for the Caravan Family books, putting 'novels' into search' or if you wanted to find a copy of Enid Blyton's Magazine you wouldn't put 'magazine' into search (I hope!), you would just go straight to the Magazines Section surely.
Tony Summerfield wrote:Surely anybody looking for cassettes would go straight to the Audio section where they would find all the cassettes, it would be daft putting 'cassettes' into search when it should be obvious where they all are.
But...all the cassettes aren't in the 'audio' section... (I mean, they aren't all immediately visible in the 'cassette section' unless you know who produced the cassette you're looking for.)
However, I do know what you mean...but have to admit defeat and admit that after using the search facility for several years, I still find it quite difficult when searching for less specific things - ie - if I want to find a jigsaw or cassette or certain game and don't know the make. Probably its just me, being a bit thick though.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
Tony Summerfield wrote:Often just one significant word is a very good way of searching.
...if I wanted to find the Society Booklets (My Christmas present to the Cave!) I would again just choose one word from a booklet, 'tricked', and get in that way.
It's great to see all the Society booklets listed. They're beautifully produced and contain material that would otherwise be very difficult indeed to obtain.
I agree that one word searches are the best way to search the cave - and most often I do search like that - its only occasionally I search something like 'cassettes' and come unstuck!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
I can't say I have ever had much difficulty in searching the Cave. Enid wrote books (and magazine articles) and that is all I am interested in, so maybe it is easier for me as I (like Tony and Anita) put in one word - it even suggests you do this in the search box! Let's face it, with the seemingly millions of treasures in the Cave, would you immediately find something searching with just a torch in a real cave of books....?
Yes - book searches are much more successful. A good example - yesterday, I wanted to look up the Mr Galliano jigsaw puzzle from 1948 - so I followed instructions and typed in 'Galliano' - all the books came up, but NOT the puzzle. This is where problems arise for searchers who aren't looking for a book.
I would have thought every 'Galliano' item would have come up, but the puzzle doesn't. You have to type 'Bestime' - or 'jigsaw' - but just using the word 'Galliano' isn't sufficient, as it would be if you were searching for a book.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
I think that must be because the search facility doesn't always recognise part of a word (though at other times it does seem to - maybe there are certain factors that affect whether it does or not). You can usually get there in the end by playing around a little and trying other options as you've discovered, Rob. The jigsaw has the title Mr. Galliano's Circus and I've found that typing in "Galliano's" will bring it up.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
(I mean, they aren't all immediately visible in the 'cassette section' unless you know who produced the cassette you're looking for.)
