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Opacs and our changing environment: Observations, Hopes, and Fears

Challenges from a changing environment. An expanding information universeBetter search systemsInvaders in our domainAn unstable environmentA role for evaluation/recommendationPortals are a puzzleFRBR. 1. An expanding information universe. The role and place of the opac is changing dramatical

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Opacs and our changing environment: Observations, Hopes, and Fears

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    1. Opacs and our changing environment: Observations, Hopes, and Fears Dale Flecker Harvard University Library January, 2005

    2. Challenges from a changing environment An expanding information universe Better search systems Invaders in our domain An unstable environment A role for evaluation/recommendation Portals are a puzzle FRBR

    3. 1. An expanding information universe

    4. From this.

    6. To this.

    7. OPAC one of many peer resources Multiple local collection catalogs Harvard has separate catalogs for visual materials, GIS, archival collections, social science datasets, plus an opac (and lots of little databases) Licensed external services proliferating 175+ search platforms on the Harvard library portal Plus internet engines, on-line book stores, etc., etc.

    8. Important implication

    9. A hope

    10.

    11. Search technology (examples) Faster Better results Assist the user Dealing with large retrieval sets

    12. Faster search

    13. Better results: relevance

    14. Assist the user (shouldnt opacs do this?)

    15. Help with large search result sets: Endeca

    16. Endeca search result screen

    17. (more of same result screen)

    18. And get a subset with more options

    19. Help with large search result sets: Grokker

    20. Grokker

    21. Compare with single ordered result

    22. A hope

    23. A related hope

    24. 3. Invaders in our domain

    25. A quote

    26. Invaders

    27. Invaders

    28. How often have you heard:

    29. A fear

    30. A hope

    31. 4. An unstable environment Many, many more players in the information environment Enormous amount of experimentation, creativity Technology enables new models, services, and players Change enormously rapid

    32. A fear

    33. Why stagnation? Opac technical platform not flexible, unable to evolve rapidly opac developments tied to very long development timeframe underlying opac model 20 years old, interfaces 10 year old ILS vendors turn their attention elsewhere no longer invest resources in opac

    34. 5. A role for evaluation/recommendation

    35. HELP! -- I just want to read Hamlet

    36. Compare

    37. or

    38. along with

    39. Not all users are the same

    40. A fear

    41. 6. Portals are a puzzle Harvards e-resource portal lists 6000 resources Compared to opac: simple search, no added entries, no syndetics, dumb browse arrangement Yet 5 to 10 times more use of licensed resources from the portal than from the catalog Proposals now to add opac features to the portal Multiple entry points See references

    42. Three questions

    43. A hope

    44. 7. FRBR Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (IFLA) Hierarchic model for bibliographic data Work, expression, manifestation, item Potentially more coherent view of bibliographic holdings than the unit record of catalog cards (and MARC records!)

    45. 41 pages like this for the IIliad in HOLLIS

    46. 400 pages like this under Mozart in HOLLIS

    48. Again, we select the 6th symphony.Again, we select the 6th symphony.

    49. As you can see the display is slightly different from the staff windows client. The tree display is automatically expanded to show the Expression records. The selected record, in this case the Work record, is off to the right. Instead of the MARC display of the Work record, I am showing the Full display. The library has control as to what tags are displayed, what labels are used for each tag, and what order the tags display in. In this example, the label for 240 is Uniform Title. Also noticed that while most of the Expressions are Musical sound recordings, there is one Expression for Printed Music. We also display icons for the type of material. In this case a note symbol for printed music and a round looking thing for a sound recording.As you can see the display is slightly different from the staff windows client. The tree display is automatically expanded to show the Expression records. The selected record, in this case the Work record, is off to the right. Instead of the MARC display of the Work record, I am showing the Full display. The library has control as to what tags are displayed, what labels are used for each tag, and what order the tags display in. In this example, the label for 240 is Uniform Title. Also noticed that while most of the Expressions are Musical sound recordings, there is one Expression for Printed Music. We also display icons for the type of material. In this case a note symbol for printed music and a round looking thing for a sound recording.

    50. Here the tree has been expanded to show the Manifestations for the NBC Symphony Orchestra Expression. Notice that the Work record is still being displayed in the box. Thats because no other entry on the tree has been selected.Here the tree has been expanded to show the Manifestations for the NBC Symphony Orchestra Expression. Notice that the Work record is still being displayed in the box. Thats because no other entry on the tree has been selected.

    51. Another example of selecting a different Manifestation. In this case a manifestation of the printed music expression. This gives me the chance expound a little bit on FRBR Works and Expressions. The Work is Beethovens 6th Symphony. Most of the Expressions associated with this FRBR Work are different performances of the symphony, but in this example we are looking at a totally different kind of Expression, not a performance, but the alphanumeric Expression of the Printed Music for the 6th Symphony. Same Work, but different Expressions. Also, notice that this particular Manifestation has items with it. Most of the FRBR records we have already looked at or will look at do not have items associated with them. Thats basically because I was too lazy to create item records for them, since there really isnt any difference between a normal non-FRBR item and an item attached to a FRBR manifestation record.Another example of selecting a different Manifestation. In this case a manifestation of the printed music expression. This gives me the chance expound a little bit on FRBR Works and Expressions. The Work is Beethovens 6th Symphony. Most of the Expressions associated with this FRBR Work are different performances of the symphony, but in this example we are looking at a totally different kind of Expression, not a performance, but the alphanumeric Expression of the Printed Music for the 6th Symphony. Same Work, but different Expressions. Also, notice that this particular Manifestation has items with it. Most of the FRBR records we have already looked at or will look at do not have items associated with them. Thats basically because I was too lazy to create item records for them, since there really isnt any difference between a normal non-FRBR item and an item attached to a FRBR manifestation record.

    52. A hope

    53. A fear

    55. The fearful picture Opac is bypassed for more exciting and effective search engines Opacs stagnate through neglect Opacs feel increasingly rule-bound and obsolete used only by the sophisticated researcher Librarians argue about cataloging rules while the larger world moves on.

    56. More quotes from Burn the Catalog

    57. Expectations are changing

    58. The hopeful picture The opac becomes more integrated with the larger information environment including metasearch engines and internet engines such as Google Opac searching improves in parallel with other search environments including help with larger retrieval sets Opacs and portals merge to simplify the environment for both users and librarians

    59. The hopeful picture Opacs help the general user find a good copy to read FRBR makes things better, not worse

    61. Questions Does the competition matter? letm use Google and Amazon if that suits their needs! Even if it matters, do we have the resources to hold our own in this environment? Google spent $200M in 04 in R&D (not including stock options) and expects to increase that by 50% this year

    62. Questions Should we shrink the role of the opac? locating items, organizing deeply complex parts of the collection and shrink the cost of creating it? Or separate it from the ils and modernize it using a commercial search engine? possibly not MARC aware

    63. Questions Do opacs need expensive, complex metadata in the world of Amazon (simple metadata) and Google (full text searching)? is the world moving towards dumb data, smart engines?

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