From an OCLC-sponsored session entitled, "Local Impact, Global Reach: WorldCat Local for Your Library" at the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston

1. WorldCat Local @ Auraria Nina McHale Assistant Professor, Web Librarian University of Colorado Denver January 17 2010

2. A Letter from Grandma

3. What I can tell you about… Selection Our timeline Creating an inclusive selection process Implementation Our timeline Integration into library’s web presence Assessment Impact on public services Tweaks to home page Patron feedback

4. Our Selection Timeline June 2008: Task Group formed Began investigation of NextGen products October 2008: “Top Three” identified NextGen Catalog Week December 2008: Made product recommendation to University Librarian/Library Director

5. NextGen Task Group Membership Membership: Web Librarian (chair of selection process) Distance Support Librarian (chair of implementation process) Assistant Director for Technical Services 2 Reference & Instruction Librarians Catalog Librarian ILS “Server Guy” For implementation, changed chair and swapped one R&I librarian for a bibliographer

6. NextGen Catalog Week October 10-14, 2008 Invited vendor reps from our three top picks: Aquabrowser Encore WorldCat Local Recorded vendor presentations put on reserve Invited all Library employees and colleagues from around the area Prize drawing to encourage feedback

7. Task Group Selection Decision: Why WorldCat Local? Cost: competitively priced with no hidden extras Features: exactly what we wanted, nothing we didn’t Wanted: book covers and federated searching Not so much: concept maps Proof of concept: OCLC has our data, so we could see a prototype immediately Integration with existing resources: local and consortial III catalog Trust factor: OCLC

8. Implementation Timeline January 2009: Contract negotiations began April 2009: Contract finalized Summer 2009: Created beta version Publicized WCL to faculty and students August 2009: Launched to campus community

9. About the Contract… A four-month contract negotiation is not typical Colorado Amendment 54, enacted on December 31 2008: “Clean Government Colorado” intended to limit contractor influence on policy decisions Prohibits holding of contracts totaling $100,000 or more awarded by state or local governments without competitive bidding ("sole source government contracts”) It took longer to complete the contract than to implement WorldCat Local

10. Integration into Library Web Site Instance of WCL is at http://aurarialibrary.worldcatlocal.org How do we get it into the Library’s home page? Launched on a tight time frame Cancellation of 360 Search July 31 2009 Fall 2009 semester began August 17 No time for formal usability Tabbed search box for library homepage desired Programmers? What programmers?

11. OCLC Widget Generator

12. OCLC Widget Generator Results

13. OCLC Widget Generator Generator writes the HTML code for you and your WCL (copy + paste) It can be tweaked a bit by hand Fixed-width widget didn’t fit into center column of existing home page design Tab options somewhat limited One can select up to 5 of 6 tab options to include as well as which is the default However, tab labels can’t be changed

14. University of Washington’s Tabs

15. Placement on Library’s Home Page

16. Why, Yes, You Can Have the Code! Yahoo Developer Network’s User Interface (YUI) TabView http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/tabview/ XHTML chunk with 3 JavaScript files and 1 CSS file Thoroughly documented, but does require CSS/XHTML knowledge Allows complete customization of tab labels, colors, etc.

17. Auraria Library’s Tabs

18. Placement on Library’s Home Page

19. Tab Labels and Search Tips: Books “Tip” addresses that the default book search does not work well for known-item searches Links are to title, author, etc. searches in traditional catalog

20. Tab Labels and Search Tips: Articles “Tip” addresses that the WCL does not search ALL articles/databases owned Link is to homegrown database of databases

21. Tab Labels and Search Tips: Journals “Tip” directs users looking for articles to “Articles” tab Added for known-item journal search

22. Assessment Public services perspectives Reference and Instruction Document Delivery Patron reactions Students Faculty

23. Reference and Instruction Perspectives Tension between mission of reference and instruction and discovery tools generally “Why Reference and Instruction Librarians Hate Federated Searching and NextGen Catalogs” Instruction survey: most instruction librarians do not demo WCL in their classes Shopping mall/boutique analogy

24. Document Delivery Increase? Prospector (consortium) requests have increased by 9.1% Fall 2008: 5141 Fall 2009: 5643 However, 10% increase was typical for all member libraries during this time period ILL: Stats not yet calculated for Fall 2009 Concern about increase in abandoned requests Discussion of limiting requests Increase in audio/video requests

25. Changes for Spring 2010 Tabbed “Start My Research” portion of web page more inclusive of other search tools, including: Our traditional catalog (Skyline) Our consortium catalog (Prospector) Homegrown database of databases Google Scholar Drop-downs added to “Books” and “Articles” tabs to select search tools “Books” set as default search

26. “Books” Tab Changes Added drop-down menu that offers three catalog choices; default is catalog, not WCL

27. “Articles” Tab Changes Added drop-down menu that includes WCL as default, our database of databases, and Google Scholar

28. Patron Perspectives Faculty More experienced users are frustrated by what makes it easier for novices Known-item searching more roundabout Their comparisons of WCL to Amazon are—gasp!—derogatory! Students Mostly anecdotal reference transaction info Confusion over location of items

29. Faculty Quote 1 "The new database seems based on Amazon.com. I don’t need suggestions, and poor ones at that, of related books when I use the library. I don’t need to see what other borrowers thought of the book. The information I need is poorly displayed. It is hard to cut and paste. It takes several screens to scan through, instead of the much quicker scroll in the traditional format (e.g., finding out what libraries have the book). It supplies distracting, if not useless information (a picture of the cover, the distance to other libraries—as if I need to know how far Provo is). Finally, the one potentially useful feature—a direct link that will let me order the title via [the consortium catalog]—is left off."

30. Faculty Quote 2 "I’m glad to hear that this database is on a trial basis! It’s all over the place, specifically in the initial search options. Where I would have been able to search specifically for the call number or author, I am left to do a basic keyword search, and then to weed through the unwanted material (while this is helpful sometimes, it is counterproductive when the exact book is known). The layout also just looks cheesy. I feel like I’m searching Amazon.com for a discounted textbook that will inevitably be tattered and torn. Besides that, there aren’t many images linked to books and that exacerbates the cheesy vibes I get from it!I wonder if it is just that it will take me time to get used to the new look, but my first impression of it is NOT NOT NOT a good one!"

31. Getting More Patron Feedback Faculty: “Connections” Seminars and other outreach venues Promotion of WCL features for teaching (i.e., tagging items, creating lists, etc.) Students: Massive usability project launching January 2010

32. Questions? Comments? Nina McHale nina.mchale@ucdenver.edu Facebook & Twitter: ninermac WorldCat @ Auraria in action: http://aurarialibrary.worldcatlocal.org http://library.auraria.edu