HOLLIS teaching tip?

Today, in a conversation about the catalog, Steve pointed out something in (new) HOLLIS that I'd not noticed before (or if I had noticed it, hadn't computed its utility fully).  It's this:  in the HOLLIS number field, we're given two other options for viewing an item record: MARC format and HOLLIS Classic.

This led us to a brainstorm -- and to a practice I'm going to incorporate, when appropriate, into my teaching sessions this spring.  I pass it on in case it's helpful (and not already insanely obvious to the rest of you).

One of the "issues" we sometimes have with new HOLLIS is the inability to browse subject headings in their full form (since even when resort them alphabetically in new HOLLIS, we get truncated forms).  That's sometimes led librarians to suggest researchers redo their search in Classic (or start there).

That's no longer necessary.

From inside a  record, simply click on the  HOLLIS Classic link, and from there, into one of the subject headings given for the item. Voilà: the browseable list. 

Try it.  You'll have the same old (and still important) functionality, but without having to leave one version of the catalog, open another, re-execute a search and then drill down. Fewer steps . . . a bit more seamlessness in how we move between systems . . . and a way around one of the strange complexities of our searching universe that we try to make intelligible to students.