=====Evergreen IRC Focus Group Discussions on Search======
  * Tuesday, March 8, 2016 - 10 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Pacific - IRC Practice session at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, 6:30 a.m. Pacific - [[http://evergreen-ils.org/meetings/evergreen/2016/evergreen.2016-03-08-10.00.log.html|Log of focus group discussion]]
  * Friday, March 11, 2016 - 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific - IRC practice session at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, 9:30 a.m. Pacific [[http://evergreen-ils.org/meetings/evergreen/2016/evergreen.2016-03-11-13.01.log.html|Log of focus group discussion]]
  * Tuesday, March 15, 2016 - 3 p.m. Eastern, 12 p.m. Pacific [[http://evergreen-ils.org/meetings/evergreen/2016/evergreen.2016-03-15-15.00.log.html|Log of focus group discussion]]
  * Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - 3 p.m. Eastern, 12 p.m. Pacific - IRC Practice session at 2:30 p.m. Eastern, 11:30 a.m. Pacific [[http://evergreen-ils.org/meetings/evergreen/2016/evergreen.2016-03-16-15.01.log.html|Log of focus group discussion]]

[[scratchpad:search:focus_groups:summary|Summary of Focus Group Discussions]]

====Goal of Focus Group Discussions====
The goal of these focus groups it to discuss what participants believe is needed for an ideal Evergreen search system and to lay the groundwork for possible future changes to search, either within the current method of using PostgreSQL full-text search or by moving search to a different platform. During these sessions, we will hear from participants on what they think the strengths of the current search are and where they see room for improvement.

====Focus Group Discussion Ground Rules====
  * **There are no dumb ideas** - Please feel free to share any ideas you have, even if they seem implausible for the near-term future. We want people to feel free to think creatively about search.
  * **Do not criticize other people's ideas** - This is not a debate, but an opportunity for everyone to feel comfortable sharing the ideas they have. 
  * **This is not an instructional session** - It is likely that people will raise ideas for improvement when the functionality is already available in Evergreen. That's okay. Spending time to instruct participants on current Evergreen functionality will take away from the core discussion on what an ideal search platform can do. We should view this discussion not only as a way to see where the software can improve, but also to identify where we can improve documentation or make configuration easier. When the focus groups are over, we can follow up with a full report to identify where gaps are between what people think is available and what is really available.
  * **Build on other people's ideas** - Sometimes, an idea from somebody else can trigger an idea from you that improves upon the idea. Feel free to build off other people's ideas or offer variations of their ideas.
  * **No talk of specific search platforms** - For now, we just want to talk about the functionality that should be available to our users, not the means for getting that search to users. Discussions of platforms should come at a later time. 
  * **Stay focused on the questions** - The discussion will be most effective if we stay focused on the question on the table.