Solving the OPAC Problem

John Blyberg, Head of Technology and Digital Initiatives, Darien Library
Christopher Barr, Design & Interface Specialist, Villanova University

John Blyberg:
previous and current work on SOPAC (Social Online Public Access Catalog) at Ann Arbor Library and Darien Library.
Ann Arbor District Library – catalog uses the open source Drupal program. He created a catalog using social media of tagging, reviews, ratings etc. as you can in other types of social network sites. Problems with the adaptations they made: you cannot search by these elements, no way to get to them directly other than through the book record.

Darien Library uses Drupal as the database system for the catalog. SOPAC-2

Link: Advanced search

Here is screenshot from the advanced search catalog showing the tag cloud. Library users contribute tags and reviews. When a library user logs in, they can change the tags and edit reviews, etc. that they contribute to the library catalog.

They are adding RSS and other programs since it is very easy to develop new pieces now that the catalog architecture is completed. How do they handle e-commerce: through their SSL system managed through Drupal. Anyone can create a Darien Library account and add tags, reviews, etc. to the library catalog. Participation is not just restricted to people who have local affiliation to the library.

Chris Barr: Villanova University Library
Resource discovery in their catalog
Many people in the audience were not happy with their opac. Chris believes that open source is the solution.
Problem: We have various pieces of software for the OPAC, all with different systems. Answer: we need to get everything under one system. Problem: we need a system that doesn’t require you to know the LC subject headings to do a subject search. Answer: need faceted search. Problem: syntax may be too specific for practicality. Answer: need more flexibility in searches. They needed a catalog with more web 2.0 features. Answer: use open-source and make a new one. Solution: make a system that gives you a search across the whole system in one search. They are working on creating integrated digital systems for all of the library services.

They used VuFind to create a discovery layer that sits above the ILS, and expand searching. They also created a CMS for their system and numerous projects for library functionality out of open-source.

From the VuFind site: www.vufind.org

VuFind is a library resource portal designed and developed for libraries by libraries. The goal of VuFind is to enable your users to search and browse through all of your library’s resources by replacing the traditional OPAC to include:

• Catalog Records
• Locally Cached Journals
• Digital Library Items
• Institutional Repository
• Institutional Bibliography
• Other Library Collections and Resources

VuFind is completely modular so you can implement just the basic system, or all of the components. And since it’s open source, you can modify the modules to best fit your need or you can add new modules to extend your resource offerings.

Some libraries that are using this system:
National Library of Australia, Yale Univ., CARL System in Illinois, plus many who are testing.

They designed the catalog to fit this system, not the other way around.

Features of the catalog: “faceted browsing” – a feature that is like advanced search for including multiple concepts or elements.

The Villanova catalog allows many features, including firefox extensions, bibliographic save systems such as Endnote, Syndetics book cover images, text messaging to keep track of catalog items, they used wordpress-like and del.icio.us style templates to create simple systems that expand use.

Summary: we can all benefit from a discovery style system like VuFind that combines elements of the library web site.