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The Impact of 2.0 lipstick, cowbells and serendipity in the OPAC

The Impact of 2.0 lipstick, cowbells and serendipity in the OPAC Dave Pattern, Library Systems Manager University of Huddersfield d.c.pattern@hud.ac.uk Contents “OPAC suckitude” Some findings from the OPAC Survey Our experiences at Huddersfield More from the OPAC Survey

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The Impact of 2.0 lipstick, cowbells and serendipity in the OPAC

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  1. The Impact of 2.0lipstick, cowbells and serendipity in the OPAC Dave Pattern, Library Systems ManagerUniversity of Huddersfield d.c.pattern@hud.ac.uk Internet Librarian International 2007

  2. Contents • “OPAC suckitude” • Some findings from the OPAC Survey • Our experiences at Huddersfield • More from the OPAC Survey Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Internet Librarian International 2007

  3. Does Your OPAC “Suck”? Internet Librarian International 2007

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  6. Quick OPAC Survey (2007) • On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is extremely unhappy and 10 is extremely happy), how happy are you with your OPAC? 5.1  Internet Librarian International 2007

  7. Quick OPAC Survey (2007) • One criticism of OPACs is that they rarely have cutting edge features (or perhaps even basic features) that our users expect from a modern web site. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you think your OPAC meets the needs and expectations of your users? 4.5 Internet Librarian International 2007

  8. Quick OPAC Survey (2007) • On a scale of 1 to 10, how easy do you think one of your average users finds your OPAC is to use? 4.6 • On a scale of 1 to 10, how important do you think it is that an OPAC is easy & intuitive to use? 9.2 Internet Librarian International 2007

  9. The Huddersfield Experience • Not really “OPAC 2.0” (?) • Enhancements to the vendor OPAC • user suggestions from student/staff surveys • “2.0” inspired features • good ideas “borrowed” from other web sites • new features launched with no/low publicity • “perpetual beta” • Required staff buy-in and a willingness to experiment and take risks Internet Librarian International 2007

  10. Spell Checker • We monitored keyword searches over a six month period and discovered 23%* of searches gave zero results • most OPACs present the user with a dead end page (“...where do I go now?”) • a good search engine should still give the user options on a failed search (“did you mean?”) (* 2 years on, it’s still around 20%) Internet Librarian International 2007

  11. Spell Checker Internet Librarian International 2007

  12. Spell Checker • Spell checker based on a common word dictionary or your own holdings? • ...the latter might highlight your cataloguing errors1! Internet Librarian International 2007

  13. Serendipity Keyword Suggestions • failed keyword searches are cross referenced with www.answers.com to provide new search suggestions Internet Librarian International 2007

  14. Serendipity Keyword Suggestions Internet Librarian International 2007

  15. Borrowing Suggestions • We had details of over 2,000,000 CKOs spanning 10 years stored in the library management system and gathering virtual dust • Web 2.0 – “Data is the Next Intel Inside1” • Historic circulation data can be mined2 to uncover the hidden trends and links between potentially disparate library items Internet Librarian International 2007

  16. Borrowing Suggestions Internet Librarian International 2007

  17. Other Editions • Uses FRBR-y web services provided by OCLC and LibraryThing to locate other editions and related works within local holdings • OCLC’s xISBN1 • LibraryThing’s thingISBN2 Internet Librarian International 2007

  18. Other Editions Internet Librarian International 2007

  19. Ratings and Comments Internet Librarian International 2007

  20. Internet Librarian International 2007

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  26. Problems ... Challenges! • There was no formal process for discussing & agreeing new OPAC features • so we organised a web/library 2.0 afternoon for staff • Some initial (healthy) scepticism from staff • would users think borrowing suggestions were formal recommendations from the library? • aren’t borrowing suggestions just for selling books? • how relevant will the suggestions be? • Would sudden changes confuse users? Internet Librarian International 2007

  27. Solutions? • Encourage suggestions from staff • Include users in decision making process • Encourage play and experimentation • Don’t be afraid to make mistakes! • Look widely for ideas • “Build crappy prototypes fast”1 • Monitor usage • if usage is poor then remove it Internet Librarian International 2007

  28. “If you build it, will they come?” Internet Librarian International 2007

  29. Increase in Usage Internet Librarian International 2007

  30. Increase in Usage Internet Librarian International 2007

  31. Lipstick on the Pig “We need to focus more energy on important, systemic changes rather than cosmetic ones. If your system is more difficult to search and less effective than Amazon.com, then you have work to do. After all, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still very much a pig.” (Roy Tennant, Library Journal, 2005) Internet Librarian International 2007

  32. Quick OPAC Survey – Features • Please rate how important you feel the following features are to your users in a modern OPAC. • embedding the OPAC in external sites (e.g. portals) 8.7 • “did you mean” spelling suggestions 8.6 • enriched content (book covers, ToCs, etc) 8.4 • RSS feeds (e.g. new books, searches, etc) 7.8 • facetted browsing (e.g. like NCSU Library) 7.4 • “people who borrowed this” suggestions 6.5 • user tagging of items (i.e. folksonomy) 6.1 • user added comments and reviews 6.1 • personalised suggestions (e.g. like Amazon) 6.0 • user added ratings for items 5.7 Internet Librarian International 2007

  33. Importance (getting soon) Internet Librarian International 2007

  34. Importance – UK respondents Internet Librarian International 2007

  35. Technology Adoption - Now Internet Librarian International 2007

  36. Technology Adoption – Q4 07? Internet Librarian International 2007

  37. Thank you! Any quick questions? http://www.slideshare.net/daveyp d.c.pattern@hud.ac.uk Internet Librarian International 2007

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