Manage the showcase in your online catalogue

The showcase is an important tool for animating your online catalogue. It is displayed on the home page and invites library users to explore your catalogue and it lets them discover titles they had no idea of.

The showcase contents can be updated automatically and/or manually. We encourage you to regularly check this contents and if necessary to change it in order to keep it attractive.

Settings

You display the showcase from the settings of the WebOPAC server (you access these settings with the File>Maintenance, then Other>Configure web public search commands). On the "General" page, tick the "Display showcase" check box. If you'd like to automatically display new acquisitions, then tick the "Display new acquisitions" check box. You define in the "Titles acquired since the X last days" and "Delay before titles are available" fields, how long new titles will be displayed in the showcase. For instance, if you have defined the values "30" and "7", new acquisitions with a book cover will be displayed 7 days and during about 3 weeks until 30 days after their acquisition.

If you want to manually choose titles to display (for instance books about Christmas in December), tick the "Display titles with the "In Showcase" value" check box. In this case, you will have to manage the showcase's contents yourself (please read on).

The contents of the "Showcase title" field is displayed above the showcase and it explains what the showcase contains. You can define this title in different languages.

Managing the showcase

If you have ticked the "Display new acquisitions" check box, new acquisitions are added to the showcase and removed automatically depending on the criteria defined in the WebOPAC's settings (please see above). You don't have anything to do.

If you have ticked the "Display titles with the "In Showcase" value, you have to regularly renew the showcase's contents :

In the titles' cataloguing template, under the "Cover page" tab, you find a check box called "In Showcase". If you have registered a cover picture, you can tick this check box (but this is useless for new acquisitions, as they are displayed automatically if you have ticked the check box "Display new acquisitions"). You can add titles individually in the showcase by modifying each record, but you can also use the Action>Apply>In Showcase command in order to add several title records at once.

If you add titles to the showcase, do not forget to remove them after a while ! Indeed, if you only add titles without removing them, your showcase coult contain hundreds of covers after some monthes, what is useless (nobody will look at the showcase until all covers have been displayed) and it makes the server WebOPAC slower. We recommend that not more than 50 covers to be displayed in the showcase at once.

With the Action>Search command, you can find all titles (except new acquisitions) that are displayed in the showcase. Please define the following search criterion : In Showcase is equal to Yes. You remove titles from the showcase either by modifying their record one by one and by unticking the check box "In Showcase" or by using the Action>Apply>In Showcase command and by choosing the "No" value.