The search suggestion feature uses three lists to determine whether or not a search term will be suggested to patrons, based on search profiles: the search suggestion list, the delivered blacklist, and the custom blacklist for a search profile.
| • | The search suggestion list is maintained by Portfolio for all search profiles. It contains search words and phrases that have been used while searching Discovery search sources in the library system at least three times in the last 10 days, and are not on the delivered blacklist. |
| • | The delivered blacklist (also called the default blacklist) is part of the software that is created and delivered by SirsiDynix, and is applied to all search profiles. The delivered blacklist is a list of words that will never appear as part of any search suggestion for any search profile. The default blacklist includes standard forms of US English profanity. |
| • | The custom blacklist is maintained by an administrator whose account includes the PRIV_SEARCH_SUGGESTIONS privilege. The custom blacklist is a list of additional words and phrases that will never appear as part of any search suggestions for a specific search profile, regardless of whether or not the terms have been entered by other patrons or resulted in successful searches. |
For example, you can blacklist a word for a children’s library search profile that you might allow as a search suggestion for a medical library search profile.
When a patron performs a new search in the library system’s Discovery search sources, Portfolio logs the search terms that the patron entered. Each night, the SUGGEST_TERM_JOB system task runs at the scheduled time to update the search suggestions list. Portfolio scans the log entries for the last 10 days, looking for search words and phrases to populate the search suggestion list. The search suggestion list is then regenerated. The search suggestion list will contain any words that have been used in searches of the library system’s Discovery search sources at least three times in the last 10 days and are not on the delivered blacklist. The newly-generated search suggestion list is then compared to the previous existing search suggestion list to determine which words are new search suggestions. The previous existing search suggestion list is discarded.
Portfolio does not log new searches performed in the library system’s federated search sources. Only searches in the library system’s Discovery search sources are logged. Searches to which the patron applied any facet are ignored and are not counted towards the three searches of Discovery search sources in 10 days requirement for a search term to appear on the search suggestion list.
Since the search suggestion list is regenerated every night, a search suggestion that existed in a previous generation of the list can “disappear” from later versions of the search suggestion list if a search term has not been used three times in the last 10 days while searching Discovery search sources. When a search term no longer meets the requirement of three uses in the last 10 days, the search term will not appear in subsequent versions of the search suggestion list until the requirement is met again. When the search term again meets the requirement, the search term will appear in the regenerated list and will be marked as a “new” search term for the search suggestion list. As a result, users who receive email notification of new search terms in a search profile’s search suggestions can be notified a number of times that a particular search term is a “new” addition to the search suggestion list.
Portfolio takes the new search suggestion list and updates the search suggestion list for each search profile. If any words or phrases in the new search suggestion list are on the custom blacklist for the search profile, Portfolio will not add those words or phrases to the search suggestion list for that search profile.
If any new search terms appear on the updated search suggestion list for a search profile, Portfolio will send an email notification message to the email address list configured for the search profile. The notification email lists the new search suggestions for the search profile. (For more information about configuring an email address list for a search profile, see Notifying users about new additions to search suggestion lists.)
If you delete a search profile, any email list of recipients that you have set up to be notified of new search suggestions for that search profile will also be deleted.
Administrators can use the emailed search suggestion notification message to check the current search suggestion list for the search profile, and determine if the search suggestion list contains search terms that they do not want to display as search suggestions to patrons with the search profile. The administrator can select any search terms in the search profile’s current search suggestion list and add them to the custom blacklist for the search profile. Once the terms are added to the custom blacklist, they will never be displayed as search suggestions for patrons with the search profile.
Exercise caution when blacklisting search terms for a search profile. Once a search term has been added to the custom blacklist, it can only be removed from the custom blacklist by SirsiDynix SirsiDynix Customer Support.
Related topics
Notifying users about new additions to search suggestion lists
Adding terms to the custom blacklist for a search profile
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