Faceted browsing & discovery interfaces

Many Libraries are leaving their existing Library Management System in place and concentrating on improving the user experience by adding software that adds to the bit of the system that the users care about, the catalogue interface.

The national library of australia has used an open source product VuFind, you can try it out here

The University of pittsburgh are using a product called aquabrowser to do something similar, have a look here (http://pittcatplus.pitt.edu/)

The University of East Anglia are using another commercial product called Primo to deliver the same kinds of optiosn in their catalogues, have a look here (http://broadsearch.uea.ac.uk)

Another product is Endeca, which NCSU are using, this was linked to in a previous post. There are also offerings from other companies including Sirsi Dynix ( Enterprise).

What do you think, would they make life easier for users? What functions do you like or not like about these kinds of interfaces? (http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/)

Web 2.0 - what might it mean for our Library?

One of the areas that we are looking at as part of the environmental scan is web 2.0 and how it might change the way that the library relates to its clients.
Liaison Librarians in Hobart and Launceston have been making presentations about different web 2.0 applications and services including Digg, Youtube, Second Life, Technorati and many others . The idea was to think about how the library might use these services and applications (The presentations are all available via Knowledgebase if you weren't there).

So, how do you see the library communicating with clients in 5 years time?

• Will We use a facebook style social networking site to get to know our clients so well we can anticipate what they want?

• Will we all be avatars at a virtual reference desk in a second life style world?

What else might be possible, or what is possible now that we could use?

Have you seen a great feature on a Library catalogue?

If you have , we'd like to hear about it. The more input we get, the better.
Here are a couple of innovative interfaces that we've come across:

NCSU

Huddersfield

Have a look and let us know what you like or don't like about them, or tell us what other catalogue features you think would be good to have.

What is the environmental scan?

The Current Library Management System, Horizon, has a limited life span; we know that we will need to replace it at some point. But rather than just go out and buy a replacement the Library is undertaking an environmental scan.
We need to look at our options for replacing the current system, but while we are at it, we are also going to investigate what our library will look like in 5 years time, and what kinds of systems we need to have in place to support this.
So it is more than just replacing the library system, we will look at the directions that academic libraries are moving in, the way we relate to students and staff, the way research is conducted and published and the kinds of technologies that are available now and those that are emerging
Some of the main areas that we are looking at are:

• Web 2.0 and how it might change the way we interact with our clients
• Open source software options for the Library management system
• Where we expect to be in 5 years time, and how this might inform our decision making
• Examining what kinds of functionality we want in a new Library management system
• An audit of the currently available Library management systems and how they measure up to our expectations

The project team is made up of:

• Rodney (Project manager)
• Felix (Project executive officer)
• Di (Systems Librarian)
• Linda (Policy and planning Librarian)
• Kerry (ITR Liaison)

We’re finding it pretty interesting, and we hope that you’ll let us know what you think about these things too, as our project moves forward. We hope to use this blog as a way of letting you kow how our project is progressing and also getting your ideas and input into the project. So, leave us a comment and let us know what you think.