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CIL2007: Catalogs/OPACs for the Future

Roy Tennant, California Digital Library & Tim Spalding, LibraryThing



Tim: The Fun Opac

  • OPACs should have funability
  • “The library is the most fun you can have with your pants on”
  • Bring the OPAC front and center, don’t separate it from the Web site
  • Separate because we’re ashamed of the OPAC
  • Inbound links don’t go to records but to the homepage or a timeout screen
  • Link outwards & people will come to you
  • Why not link to commercial services? Your patrons are already aware of them.
  • No benefit from being a Mall
  • Link around, make everything clickable
  • “massive linking”
  • Dress up your OPAC
    • covers
      • Syndetics
      • Amazon.com
      • Free open repository of covers needs to be created
    • link to Wikipedia via ISBNs
  • Put your data out there
    • you’re not the only one who knows how to work with your data
    • librarians don’t have a monopoly on fun
  • Feeds
    • of new books
    • from a search
    • subject headings
  • People don’t want your content, they want their content
  • Blog widgets
    • They want to tell people what they’re reading
    • LibraryThing widget
      • What I’m reading now v. random
      • Random way more popular
    • How much money do I owe my library?
  • Library Thing Tage Consortium

Roy: Catalogs for the Future

  • Refuse to use the “O word”
  • what future?
  • Demise of the catalog at the local level
  • ILS still needed
  • New world order
    • discovery disaggregated form the ILS
    • Google
    • OpwnWorldCat
    • Metasearch
    • Others
  • [diagram slide about worldcat, openworldcat & worldcat local]
  • Why this makes sense

    • users typically want to fine everything they can on a topic
    • prefer to search in one place if possible
    • most ILSs lack cool new features
  • WorldCat Identities
  • FictionFinder
  • Needle Library, Hystack College
    • made up example
    • finding tool, not an OPAC

  • Next Gen ILS
    • refocused on library operations
    • discrete components that interoperate through rapid protocols
    • able to work well with other systems
      • Upload to other systems
      • expose APIs
    • inexpensive, scaleable, & easy maintenance
    • [Pines Evergreen System]
  • Next Gen Finding Tools
    • integrate access to wide variety of sources
    • Able to use info from other systems as well as provide it (via protocols)
    • offer sophisticated features
      • relevance
      • faceted browsing
    • not a library catalog

Published by Michael Sauers

Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.

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