Archive for the ‘OPAC’ Category

Judy Luther & Maureen C. Kelly write about The Next Generation of Discovery in the latest issue of Library Journal. This comprehensive article discusses new Google-style discovery tools such as including EBSCO Discovery Service and Serials Solutions’ Summon.

“A casual Google search may well be good enough for a daily task. But if you are a college student conducting his or her first search for peer-reviewed content, or an established scholar taking up a new line of inquiry, then the stakes are a lot higher. The challenge for academic libraries, caught in the seismic shift from print to electronic resources, is to offer an experience that has the simplicity of Google—which users expect—while searching the library’s rich digital and print collections—which users need. Increasingly, they are turning to a new generation of search tools, called discovery, for help.”

Marshall Breeding writes about OCLC’s latest initiative for Library Journal’s Academic Newswire in – In Challenge to ILS Industry, OCLC Extends WorldCat Local To Launch New Library System. The article explains the move to expand WorldCat Local’s existing features to include circulation, delivery, and acquisitions functionality. The new service would eventually enable library subscribers to use the system as they would a locally installed ILS.

“While OCLC will offer these services at some level of annual subscription cost, it would displace large expenditures that libraries make in hardware, software, and personnel for their current ILS infrastructure. OCLC’s general approach is consistent with an emerging current IT trend for business automation services offered through diffusely distributed Web-accessible computing environments.”

The folks at Online Best Colleges have compiled a list of 100 Twitter Tools to Help You Achieve All Your Goals. Each application in this handy guide is divided into the following categories:

• Twitter Analysis
• Information Gathering
• Network Building & Management
• Twitter Management
• Sharing Tools
• Organization & Productivity
• Life Tools
• Business & Finance
• Health
• Blogging

And for even more check out the Apps section of the Twitter Fan Wiki.

Aaron Schmidt at the District of Columbia Public Library reports that they have just gone live with their iPhone application. Library patrons can download this app from iTunes to search the OPAC, read summaries and see book covers, place holds, and find info such as library hours. This looks fantastic!

via Tame the Web

John Blyberg has announced the launch of the Social OPAC application suite, including the SOPAC Drupal module which will integrate your library catalog system with the Drupal content management system to offer patrons social features found in today’s leading online communities such as tagging, ratings, and reviews. You can see it in action by checking out the Darien Library catalog. These are some of the features:

• Faceted browsing
• Ability to remove search limiters
• Saved searches
• Integrated renewals, holds placement, and fine payment
• User Ratings
• User Tagging
• User Reviews

It is also completely customizable. If you are considering using a social OPAC in your library, you can download the software and find more information on The Social OPAC website. The software is free and open source.

The Vanderbilt University Libraries have worked with Ex Libris for the past year as a development partner to create a next generation discovery tool called Primo, which works in conjunction with the library catalog.

This new tool features clustered search results by topic, creator, library collection, creation date, resource type, language, LCC Classification, and genre. It also presents results ranked by relevancy, suggests similar items and suggested new searches. The catalog also allows for user tagging and patron reviews and search queries may be saved via RSS feeds. Although other universities are working with Ex Libris, the Vanderbilt University’s AlphaSearch is the first time that the Primo product has been made available to the public.

Click for full image.

Thanks to Rhonda Gonzales @ the library, who writes about Blogs as Websites for libraries.

What she offers is an introduction to an OPAC which presents information with TAGS and comments – just like a blog – while still incorporating bibliographic data. This is taxonomy with a folksonomy ‘look and feel’. A most interesting development.

One of the most impressive is Plymouth State University’s Lamson Library. Take a look at their beta site: http://lamson.wpopac.com/library. If you do a catalog search, the results are posted to the site like blog postings complete with comments. You can also browse the catalog or the whole site by drilling down through categories, etc.

This site is built on a product called Scriblio (formerly WPopac) which describes itself as “Scriblio (formerly WPopac) – an award winning, free, open- source CMS and OPAC with faceted searching and browsing features based on WordPress“. Scriblio is not available for general use at the present, but learn more about it at About Scriblio.

[From:FIKSZ.3 NDRGRND]