Feature: Ability to search exhibit titles and descriptions across exhibits

[VanessaVenti]

Problem being solved

Currently, users cannot search across exhibit titles, subtitles, or descriptions in the Spotlight interface. This limits discoverability. Users must already know where to look or navigate manually through the listing page to find exhibits of interest.

This is particularly problematic as the number of exhibits grows and curators want to enable users to find relevant content based on themes, people, time periods, or topics mentioned in exhibit-level metadata.

Stanford has implemented this feature locally and noted its usefulness in helping users explore content more effectively.

Feature details

Enable a search function at the exhibit landing level that allows users to:

• Search across all exhibit titles, subtitles, and descriptions
• View matching exhibits in the results list

Stanford’s implementation (see exhibits.stanford.edu) provides a good example of how this might work, with a search bar on the main exhibits landing page that queries titles, subtitles, and descriptive metadata across all exhibits.

Acceptance criteria

• Users can search from the main exhibits landing page
• Search returns matching exhibits based on:
  • Title
  • Subtitle (if present)
  • Description
• Results display exhibit titles and links to the exhibits
• Search index includes newly created or edited exhibits without manual intervention
• Feature is accessible and visually integrated with the Spotlight UI