Multifaceted search request

[paxperscientiam]

As requested, I'm posting this as its own issue -- sorry for the delay!

What about giving the end-user the ability to select simultaneous filters?
• Type+Year+Author
• Type+Year
• Type+Author
• Any number of types
• any number of authors
• any number of years

From a UX/UI point of view, this could be done by making each filter a toggle: a toggle approach would give the end-user the ability to choose any combination of "types," "authors," "years," etc.

I'm not sure if individual toggles make more sense, or the ability to manually type in a filter. For publication date, specifying a range might work better: "2007" (for just 2007 publications); "5/2001,10/2003" (pubs from may 2001 to october 2003); etc. If the number of years is small, then toggles would work just fine. It's only when the number of possible years become large that an editable filter text box would be preferable. So, both methods might be necessary.

I used the term "toggle," so the UI might employ a check box for each author, year, type, etc.

If you do pursue this, I'd be very interested how you accomplish it while maintaining the beautiful aesthetic of the current incarnation.