Transforming the OPAC: Web 2.0, Mobile, and Discovery
1. Transforming the OPAC:
Web 2.0, Mobile, and Discovery
Brian C. Gray (bcg8@case.edu) Mohican 2012
2.
3. My Viewpoint = Not Cataloger
O 2nd time @ Mohican
O Team Leader Research Services:
Reference, collections, instruction,
faculty liaison duties
O Public-side
O OhioLINK Discovery Layer Taskforce
O Case discovery layer selection:
Summon
5. My Viewpoint = Not Cataloger
O KSU SLIS instruction
O LIS 60003 Information Technology for
Library & Information Professionals
O Workshop: Using Web 2.0 Principles to
Become Librarian and Educator 2.0
O Science Reference
O In-person & online-only
6. Goals for Today
O We cannot all know everything & we
get stuck in our day-to-day → Take
today to see new ideas
O Be in a safe place to question the
past, question the accepted, &
question the traditional
O Leave Mohican with a collaborator, an
idea, or both
7. Discovery vs. Federated
O Federated
O Conducts search against each
source
O Combines the results
O Limits metadata to the common
fields
O Relies on “connectors”
9. Librarians Struggle
with Discovery
O Most services do not contain databases,
but contain content
O Think books, journals, images instead of
databases
O Brings back lots of results
O Librarian teach start broad and limit but
still strive for perfect search strategies –
now reimagine search
O Results may be different every time
10. Librarians Struggle
with Discovery
O Search full-text so relevancy not as
obvious (but can be tweaked)
O Must rethink search processes to
utilize faceting to reduce results
O Some have the approach avoid
Google but now a Google-like tool for
libraries comes along
11.
12.
13. Case’s Experience
O Goal: Fast implementation
O Why?
O Get something to people so we
can get feedback for the future
O Student life cycle is short
O Result: Couple months
15. Case’s Experience
O Beta roll out
O Fix it on the fly (i.e. things can be
made better over time)
O No long-term commitments – Better
may come along
O Tool for all
Came just as we were phasing out a formal Reference
Desk & I believe made the changes more possible for
others to do Reference.
16. What We Learned:
The Unexpected
O Reference: Search styles and skills
had become stale & inflexible
O Playground for discovery & common
ground for discussion
O Bonus: Catalog cleanup
O Locations
O Duplication
17. What I Learned
O Small actionable team
O Experiment/pilot – Faculty &
students will support it and help
O Advocate with our vendors for
improvements & changes
O Partner/leverage vendors
21. Web 2.0 in Catalogs
O Adding new features to existing
catalogs
O Linking out to new sources of
information
O Trying to create environments
similar to successful processes,
websites, & styles
32. eXtensible Catalog
O “Open source, user-centered, next
generation software for libraries and
consortia. It comprises four software
components that can be used independently
to address a particular need or combined to
provide an end-to-end discovery system to
connect library users with resources.”
O University of Rochester
33. eXtensible Catalog:
User Interface
O “Drupal Toolkit integrates searchable library
metadata, ILS circulation services,
repository content and library website
content into a feature-rich web user
interface.”
O “Out-of-the-box search interface offers
faceted browsing with customizable facets. A
platform to build custom web applications
that integrate with library metadata and ILS
circulation services is also provided.”
34. eXtensible Catalog:
Metadata Management
O “Enables the XC user interface to present
FRBRized, faceted navigation across a range of
library resources. The toolkit aggregates
metadata from various silos, normalizes (cleans-
up) metadata of varying levels of quality, and
transform MARC and DC metadata into a
consistent format for use in the discovery layer.”
O “Presents an opportunity for libraries to apply
their expertise with creating and managing
metadata in a variety of web applications.”
35. eXtensible Catalog:
Connectivity
O “OAI Toolkit provides synchronization
with MARC metadata that is managed
by the ILS.”
O “NCIP Toolkit provides live circulation
status display, circulation forms
submission, and ILS authentication
for applications that work alongside
your ILS. “
36.
37. Assessment, Statistics, &
Promotion
O How many of you tell your
story outside the library?
O How many of your users know
what happens behind the
scenes?
42. Areas of Growth for
Increased Library Value
O Open, accessible, & shared data
O Local content
O Data management
O Data synthesis
O Mashing, expanding, & creating new products
from existing information
O I do not see any library catalogs that support
these areas except for displaying a record to a
finding aid.
44. Final Thoughts
O “Thinking outside the box” has
resulted in bringing features into
our OPACS but imagine starting
brand new as some of the
discovery tools have
O Lets stop retrofitting
45. Final Thoughts
O Who will build the next
catalog alternative?
O Who are the players?
O How long can we keep
upgrading & continue to lose
users to new alternatives?
46. Final Thoughts
Just think…
O Imagine Google bought an
existing OPAC - Can you imagine
them just trying to fix it?
O Imagine if Amazon was the
library catalog – not the catalog
like Amazon.
47. Brian C. Gray
O Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western
Reserve University
O Team Leader, Research Services
O Librarian: Chemical Engineering and
Macromolecular Science &
Engineering
O Email: brian.c.gray@case.edu
O http://www.slideshare.net/bcg8