FAQs: Understanding Search Interest Results
The Search Interest Wizard searches interests for an individual outreach user. For information on using reports to suggest items for many outreach users at once, see FAQs: Using Reports to Search Interests and Suggest Items
How do I interpret the Search Interest results?
When you use the Search Interest Wizard, you specify the user for whom you want to choose materials. If the specified user has one or more interest profiles, and if the Search Interest wizard finds items to match one or more interest profiles, the results display in a window with the following three tabs:
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The Suggestions Tab displays a list of matching items for one or more profiles. Information about each retrieved item is shown, such as title, author, call number, item ID, copy number, library, and publication year. For each item, you can choose to select, reject, or ignore the item for the outreach user. |
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The Selected History Tab displays a list of the items selected on the Suggestions tab. Information about each item is show, such as title, author, call number, library, copy number, and item ID. If applicable, the name of the matching interest profile displays. For each selected item, you may change its status to rejected, selected, or unselected (ignored). |
Using the results list, you can select items to give or suggest to the outreach user.
If an item is selected, a title level hold is placed regardless of any user or item restrictions that would normally prevent a hold from being placed. The range of the title level hold is determined by the Range for Outreach Holds attribute in the Outreach wizard. (The Outreach wizard is in the Module Configuration Wizards group on the Configuration toolbar.)
To change the status of a previously selected item, use the Modify History wizard to edit the corresponding history record, and change the Status field from SELECT to UNSELECT or REJECT. (Once an item has been selected, it cannot be set to IGNORE.)
How is the list of suggested items sorted?
On the Suggestions tab, the search results are grouped in order of the profile rank, then are sorted according to the sort rule in the interest profile. If no sort rule is specified in the interest profile, the records sort in one of the following orders, depending on the SirsiDynix Symphony system’s configuration.
What is the difference between matching records and qualifying records?
Matching records are records that satisfy the search criteria defined in the interest profile.
Since the Outreach Services module applies additional criteria to searches, the number of records displayed as a result of the Search Interest wizard is usually smaller than the number of matching records. This subset of matching records, called qualifying records, is subject to the following criteria:
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Searches are limited to only the library specified in the Search Interest wizard. ALL is a valid choice. |
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Charged items are not retrieved. |
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Items that have history records with a status of REJECT are not retrieved. |
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Items that have previously been selected for this user are not retrieved unless the Repeat check box in their history records is selected, and the elapsed number of days since the user last charged the item is greater than the value in the Interval Days field. |
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Items currently selected for this user are not retrieved. |
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Items currently on reserve are not retrieved. |
Like any search of the public access catalog, the Search Interest wizard may not retrieve any item,s or may retrieve any number of items. If a search fails to retrieve any matching records, the message similar to the following displays:
OUT OF 0 ITEMS, NO MORE QUALIFIED FOR THIS SELECTION
If a search retrieves matching records, but some or all of the records are disqualified because they are not available, a message similar to the following displays:
OUT OF 23 ITEMS, NO MORE QUALIFIED FOR THIS SELECTION
How is the number of qualifying records limited?
When the Search Interest Wizard retrieves qualifying items, the number of items displayed for selection is determined by the Total Items Requested field in the outreach user record, and in the Items Requested field in the interest profile. Under the search results for each interest profile, the number of qualifying records displayed is equal to the number of items requested in the interest profile, plus a configurable number of alternate selections. If there are not enough qualifying records to meet the number of items requested, SirsiDynix Symphony displays all qualifying records.
When search results are displayed, they are sorted first by the rank of the interest profile. If the number of displayed search results from the highest-ranking interest profile is equal to or greater than the total number of items requested, then lower-ranking interest profiles are not searched. If there are two or more interest profiles with the same ranking, all qualifying results from the highest-ranking interest profiles will display, subject to the limit of items retrieved in each interest profile.
For example:
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An outreach user has three interest profiles. The first two profiles both have a rank of one, and each calls for five items to be retrieved. In the user outreach record, the Total Items Requested field is set to 10. The third profile has a rank of two, and it calls for three items to be retrieved. |
When the Search Interest wizard is used, six items are retrieved from the first and second interest profiles. Since the 12 retrieved items are more than the total of 10 requested items, the 12 items will display, and the third profile will not be searched.
When the sum of the items retrieved for the interest profiles equals or exceeds the Total Items Requested value, no more interest profiles are searched, unless there are other interest profiles of the same rank as the last interest profile to be searched.
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An outreach user has three interest profiles. The first profile has a rank of one and calls for seven items to be retrieved. The second and third profiles each have a rank of two, and call for six items to be retrieved. In the user outreach record, the Total Items Requested field is set to 10. When the Search Interest wizard is used, eight items are retrieved for the first interest profile. Since this number is fewer than 10, the next highest-ranking profiles are searched. Seven items are retrieved for the second profile. |
Even though the sum of the items retrieved for the first and second profiles exceeds the Total Items Requested limit of 10, the third profile will be searched because it is of equal rank with the second profile. A total of 22 items will display.
In a multilibrary system or a consortia that uses the Tracking User Status by Library Group feature, which library groups are consulted to validate a user’s status?
When the user status is tracked by library group using the Tracking User Status by Library Group feature, the Search Interest wizard validates the user’s status using the user’s status for the bill maintenance group of the workstation library.
For more information about the Tracking User Status by Library Group feature, see the FAQs: Tracking User Status by Library Group topic.
Related topics
FAQs: Using Reports to Search Interests and Suggest Items
FAQs: Tracking User Status by Library Group
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