Re: [LM_NET] GEN: OPACs

[Christopher Harris <christophergharris@GMAIL.COM>]

OPACs suck. The entire concept and purpose of an OPAC as a connection
between users and MARC records is dated and horribly flawed. Any system that
persists in delivering MARC records will utterly fail to deliver what
patrons really need!

Our students want books (and stuff). They want to connect with stories and
characters; they want book covers and summaries and reviews and actual words
for subject headings. They do NOT want to know that a book is 24 cm. tall or
that it has col. ill. because they have no clue what that means. If our
students look at a field that is supposed to tell them the number of pages,
they just want to see the pages.

Here is the problem, though. There are currently no vendors offering a
product like this. At least not the big vendors. There are open source
projects like the Fish4Info portal that our team at the School Library
System of Genesee Valley BOCES in Western NY developed. Fish4Info truly is a
next generation library portal with an integrated catalog (for finding, not
searching), simple record displays delivered in plain English, moderated
book reviews/ratings/tags, featured books for staff with one click display
on front page, a calendar, online resources, a bookmark manager (like
del.icio.us), and more. You can read more at
http://schoolof.info/infomancy/?p=436 and see it in action at
http://fish4info.org. Be sure to select a school in the upper right hand
corner drop down to see a working site.

If you take a closer look or share this with your technology department, you
can download the Fish4Info program for free at http://fish4info.org/gofish.

You know what you want; you clearly laid out the definition of a
next-generation library catalog/portal. Now we all have to start demanding
some action from the vendors that provide us service.

Christopher Harris - infomancy@gmail.com
Coordiantor, School Library System
Genesee Valley BOCES - Le Roy, NY
schoolof.info/infomancy | digitalreshift.org

On Nov 28, 2007 12:08 AM, Michelle Ohnstad <michelle.ohnstad@gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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...
> Michelle S. Ohnstad, MLIS
> michelle.ohnstad@gmail.com
>
>

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