About AquaBrowser

AquaBrowser, Gwinnett County Public Library’s enhanced catalog searching interface, enables library users to easily gather the most valuable information.  The majority of traditional online catalog search results are limited to author, exact title, subject, or keywords found within the catalog.  AquaBrowser, however, interfaces with the library’s catalog and graphically displays the relationship between a search term and other terms that may be related.  The color-coded results returned in the word cloud are terms that are spelling variations, translations, or associations with the original search term.  The user is then able to discover new search paths and further refine the results.

Searching with Aquabrowser

To search GCPL’s catalog, just input one or more search terms in the Search box at the top of the screen.  Aquabrowser will look for this term in the author, title and subject fields, and the results will be ranked by relevance. Click on a result to see a more detailed description.

On the left side of the screen, you see a word cloud based on your query. These words are suggestions for you to discover new information and help you in formulating your query. These suggestions consist of translations, spelling variations, and associations – all of which are explained below in greater detail. Clicking on any of these terms in the word cloud yields a new search combining that term with the original one.

On the right side of the screen, you'll see lists of possible options to refine your result set. If you choose to refine your results, you can do so by picking any of the search options, such as a specific subject, author, category, or a language, etc. By doing this, you can not only find the exact information you are looking for, but also from the exact kind of resource you would like it to be from, depending on your needs.  Clicking an option filters your results so only those results having your option in it remain.

Understanding the Word Cloud

A color-coded key is located underneath the word cloud.  The color and size of the words in the cloud have meaning:

• -- Associations (white):  terms that are related to the original query, designed to help you formulate a direction in your search.  Click on an association to search for it in the context of your current results.

• -- Spelling Variants (blue): variations of the original query found within the catalog, which are useful if you are not sure how to spell a word.  AquaBrowser will make the connection between these different spellings and see what it is you are looking for. Click on a variation to see more results for it.

• -- Translations (yellow): AquaBrowser finds exact translations of the query term in other languages. Click on a translation to search with your word in another language.

• -- Discovery Trail (red): terms you have already visited, providing a trail of where you have already clicked.

*The larger a word is in size, the more relevant it is.  A word’s position in the cloud, however, has no direct meaning.