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Catalogs for the Future

Catalogs for the Future. Library Automation: Yesterday’s Technology Tomorrow. ILS Vendors: Squandering our money doing exactly what we asked them to do. Andrew K. Pace NCSU Libraries March 24, 2006. The state of catalogs. One rarely gets what one deserves.

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Catalogs for the Future

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  1. Catalogs for the Future Library Automation: Yesterday’s Technology Tomorrow ILS Vendors: Squandering our money doing exactly what we asked them to do Andrew K. Pace NCSU Libraries March 24, 2006

  2. The state of catalogs One rarely gets what one deserves. One almost never gets what ones does not ask for.

  3. “OPAC Complainers” March 2005 “There is certainly no dearth of OPAC complainers. You have Andrew Pace (OPACs suck), and Roy Tennant (You Can’t Put Lipstick on a Pig) writing and presenting about the need for change (more simplicity) in the OPAC world. I can appreciate their arguments for a simpler OPAC (not to mention the rest of the system) but other then present their arguments, neither has much in the way of suggestions nor have they sparked a movement among librarians or the automation vendors to do anything about the situation. -ACRL Blog entry, 13-Oct-2005 “Lipstick on a Pig,” Digital Libraries Column, LJ April 15, 2005

  4. NextGen OPAC • The Next Generation OPAC is more than just a facelift • RLG, OCLC Fictiofinder • Vivisimo clustered search (demo) • Aquabrowser visual context (demo) • Endeca faceted search (demo) • Innovative Interfaces “OPAC Pro” • Ex Libris “Primo” • Polaris, AJAX-Enabled OPAC • SirsiDynix Enterprise Portal System, FAST • Talis, et alWeb Services • OCLC Custom Worldcat • Georgia Pines and the Library 2.0 Bandwagon

  5. Endeca, et al Speed Relevance Ranking Faceted Browsing True Browsing (LC) Spell-checking Automatic stemming “Did you mean…” Unicorn / Web2 As if… Last-in / First-out Authority index links Query required Dictionary lookup only No No Pursuit of Features

  6. Purchase Decision • Lots of broad topical keyword searches • Authority infrastructure underutilized • No relevancy ranking of results • Opportunity to partner with Endeca

  7. Technical Overview • Endeca ProFind co-exists with SirsiDynix Unicorn ILS and Web2 online catalog. • Endeca indexes MARC records exported from Unicorn. • Index is refreshed nightly with records added/updated during previous day.

  8. Endeca ProFind Overview • Endeca’s ProFind software is responsible for… • Ingesting and indexing reformatted NCSU data. • Creating a back-end service that responds to queries with result sets. • NCSU is responsible for… • Reformatting MARC records into something Endeca application can parse. • Keeping these reformatted records up to date. • Building the web application that users see. • Sending queries to Endeca back-end service and displaying results.

  9. Did someone say “MARC is dead” ? • Endeca doesn’t understand MARC records. • MARC  flat text file(s) for ingest by Endeca. • Creates opportunity to manipulate data on the back-end.

  10. Pre-Endeca Catalog Search • 6 search tabs • 14 radio buttons • 1-4 drop down boxes

  11. Endeca Catalog Search • 3 search tabs • No radio buttons • 2 search boxes • Keyword search default

  12. Brief view vs. Full view gives user choice about displaying holdings. Reduces complexity of continuing and online resources. • 8th (and Final) Revision: • Ideas drawn from Web2, RedLightGreen, Amazon, etc. • Aggregate holdings information by library.

  13. 9. Availability 10. Library of Congress Classification • Subject: Topic • Subject: Genre • Format • Library • Subject: Region • Subject: Era • Language • Author

  14. Challenges • Using LCSH like it’s never been used before • Using LC Classification for collection browsing • Integration with Web2 and authority searching • Creeping Featuritis • Uncharted territory

  15. Users performs keyword search for ‘iliad’ Single aggregate record represents 73 actual records — different editions of Iliad with Homer as author

  16. Click on ‘See all editions’ to view individual publication and holdings information for each aggregated result.

  17. Some User Reaction “This is absolutely the coolest thing I've seen all century.” • Will Owen, Head of Systems (UNC Libraries) “Also, I'm really digging the new NCSU library catalog. Very nice." - Educause staff (non-librarian) “The new Endeca system is incredible. It would be difficult to exaggerate how much better it is than our old online card catalog (and therefore that of most other universities). I've found myself searching the catalog just for fun, whereas before it was a chore to find what I needed.” - NCSU Undergrad, Statistics

  18. Usability Testing & Stats • 141,987 searches Feb 26- Mar 14

  19. Future Plans • Ongoing tweaks: • Continued usability testing • Relevance ranking algorithms & spell correction thresholds • Display fixes/enhancements • Additional browsing options • Endeca 2.0 ideas • FRBR-ized display • Discussions with OCLC regarding FAST (Faceted Access to Subject Terms) • Patron-generated refinements • Build detail page in Endeca with live item data from Oracle • Shopping cart functionality for email/export of records • Enrich records with supplemental content – more usable TOCs, book reviews, etc. • The death of authority searching (?)

  20. Catalog is only the first step… A&I / FT DBs Serials Catalog Web

  21. Clustered Metasearch ERM System IR GS Faceted Search DigitalRepositories Legacy ILS

  22. Thanks • http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/endeca Andrew Pace, Head, IT andrew_pace@ncsu.edu Emily Lynema, Lead Developer emily_lynema@ncsu.edu

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