I think this is already a serious issue for us and that it will grow in
prominence very rapidly, very soon. The online catalogs of far too many
libraries are dull, clunky, and unhelpful and we're nuts if we think
children are going to continue using them in their current forms for any
but mandatory and perfunctory tasks. Of course it's also a broad issue
that gets into the relationships between school districts and our ILS
and database vendors, in many cases longstanding, comfortable, and
remunerative relationships. So change will be uncomfortable for some and
the need for it will not even be seen by many of the stakeholders.
But change is going to come. Take a look at the catalog page at North
Carolina State University (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/, which uses
Endeca, a very powerful (and pricey) "guided search" back-end. Run a
search and see what turns up -- it's pretty great.
Yet it's not all high-end and vendor-driven. Take a look at the freely
available Fish4Info project by Chris Harris et al. at Genessee County
BOCES in New York State (http://fish4info.org/), based on the open
source CMS Drupal, and look through the archives of his Infomancy blog
(http://schoolof.info/infomancy) to see some of the discussion that led
up to it. Also Casey Bisson's Scriblio project at Plymouth State in New
Hampshire (http://about.scriblio.net/), which uses the open source
blogging platform Wordpress as an OPAC front-end. Or Tim Spalding's
LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com), the online social network
for book lovers that has harnessed the labor and passion of tens of
thousands of users (and given them the tools and the environment) to
generate massive quantities of high-quality bibliographic data. The
implications are huge for library websites.
I'm not convinced by Aquabrowser. It's probably a step in the right
direction. But my home library in Arlington, Virginia, uses it
(http://www.acornweb.org), as do the Arlington Public Schools, and,
while the search function is OK, the "tag cloud" thingy is, IMHO, a
useless distraction. I'm not sure what sort of algorithms it uses to
derive relevance, but they need serious tweaking.
I agreee with Michelle. I'd love to see a more serious discussion move
forward on this topic. What do others think?
---Bob.
/************************************************/
/* Bob Hassett, Head Librarian */
/* Luther Jackson Middle School (081) */
/* 3020 Gallows Road */
/* Falls Church, Virginia 22042 */
/* (703) 204-8133 */
/* Bob.Hassett@fcps.edu */
/************************************************/
See you in the Library!
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Michelle Ohnstad
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 12:08 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: GEN: OPACs
I've been browsing various blogs and speaking with my co-workers who
attended AASL recently. A big topic seems to be the failure of many
OPACs to deliver things that patrons really need. I'm interested in
hearing what you all think about it, from a school perspective. I'm
starting to look at changing our system next year and would really like
to find a product that has some features like spell-checking, "more like
this" results, relevance ranking, staff picks, etc. I'm interested in
the ability of students to add tags to records (outside of MARC and
monitored, of course) and perhaps reviews. I don't want to "amazon" my
OPAC, but I think kids simply stay away from using it because it's not
intuitive. I'd like to explore ways that it could be more "inviting" to
use.
It's looking like TLC Delivers has such a product with their
Aquabrowser.
I've searched the archives and found one or two people asking about TLC,
but no responses, really. The Phoenix Public Library uses it and has a
pretty impressive catalog (too overwhelming for what I want, but the
features are pretty cool). Follett may have a few things like this
later in 2008 with their next Destiny version (according to the rep I
emailed).
Any thoughts or ideas? Maybe this can be an on-list discussion for all,
or I can post it as a hit. The Phoenix Library is at
http://www.phxlib.org
Michelle
--
Michelle S. Ohnstad, MLIS
michelle.ohnstad@gmail.com
Library Media Specialist (1/2 time)
7th Grade Service Learning Coordinator
Pacific Ridge School
Carlsbad, CA
Web: http://www.pacificridge.org
Head Librarian (1/2 time)
La Jolla Country Day School
La Jolla, CA
Web: http://www.ljcds.org
Wiki: http://www.independentschoollibraries.wikispaces.com
Blog: http://indy-school-librarian.blogspot.com/
SLA-SD Chapter Bulletin and Blog Co-Editor
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In
the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/
* LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
* LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/
* LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
* LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home