Escape from Alcatraz

Freeing the OPAC from traditional constraintsLloyd Sokvitne

Senior Manager (Digital Strategies)State Library of Tasmania

lloyd.sokvitne@education.tas.gov.au

Your OPACInhospitable

Distant

Uninviting

Information discovery in libraries

Information discovery on the web

Inviting

Friendly

Easy

Today’s presentation

Our experience with a new discovery model• Based on aggregating metadata from a variety of

sources• What happens when you actually try to use that

metadata for discovery• What other challenges emerge

Providing a single search

• Disillusioned with federated searching• Aggregating metadata as preferred

approach– NLA, OAI, and other successes– Include both Marc and Non-Marc Metadata– Its our own data anyway

• Want control over outcomes

Moving outside the ILMS

• easier web friendly deliverables• applications adaptable/flexible• client-orientated outcomes

– discovery services– interactive web2.0 developments

• We are seeing a growing need to be able to interact with the ILS in various ways, so that some functionality can be placed in another interface – Lorcan Dempsey, 20 Jan 20, 2006

A 3-tier architecture

Uncoupling the data from the applications that create itProviding client services that are not defined by data containersThe data should be usable by any or all applications above it

Client Service

Data Storage

Applications

MODULES1. client

interaction2. acquisitions3. indexing4. searching5. circulation 6. DOM

Aggregated Metadata Information System (AMIS)

• Proof of concept developed– 500,000 OPAC Marc records exported

• Converted to a common XML format– Other records converted (images, etc)– XML records were indexed using Lucene

• 5 hrs on a desktop pc– Query screen written– All up – 2-3 days effort

Screenshot

Fast : Able to add new features : Able to participate in web environment

Screenshot

Live query works for live data

Also able to provide facets for format, genre, location, subject, etc

Prototype results

• Proved concept– Technology part is easy– Tender process almost over, market

response good– Identified that we will need to improve the

actual data• How did we want our portal to work?

To match user behaviour

• Offline behaviour– browsing• Ignored in virtually every library system• facets: open-display of content, and refining

• Online behaviour – satisficing/ranking• Ignored in virtually every library system• Ranking as the key determinant

• User interaction – ratings, reviews, etc

Now possible because we are outside the ILMS

Aggregator metadata

• Need appropriate metadata– Valid only if useful to actual searching as performed by our

clients• Data mining

– frequency of use, number of reservations, etc• Data sharing

– reviews, commentaries, tables of contents, etc• Data creation

– Libraries – adding more information, discarding unused data– Users – adding ratings, reviews, etc

Next steps

• Client interaction modules – reviews, – ratings, – wikis, – RSS, – Blogs, etc

• will be added progressively

Data is just a commodity

• ILMS integration occurred for efficiency– data storage, consistency, reuse

• efficiency now possible in other ways– moving data in large quantities is easy– accessing data in real time is easy

An OPAC no longer needs to be something provided by an ILMS

Conclusions

• AMIS – technically easy, doable• Need the right metadata to succeed• Need the right search interface

– not just a slightly modified OPAC– the design is up to us

• (there couldn’t be a better time to be a librarian)

A connected OPAC

Easy

Relevant

Busy and used

The new Alcatraz

Thank you

Lloyd SokvitneSenior Manager (Digital Strategies)

State Library of Tasmanialloyd.sokvitne@education.tas.gov.au

Recommended reading• Don't Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Steve Krug,

2nd Ed, New Riders Press; 2005

• Rethinking how we provide bibliographic services for the University of California, Final Report: December 2005, Bibliographic Services Task Force (BSTF). http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/sopag/BSTF/Final.pdf

• Integrating Information Resources: Principles, Technologies, and Approaches, Heather Christenson and Roy Tenant, http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/metasearch/nsdl/nsdl_report2.pdf

• Recommendations for urgently needed improvement of OPAC and the role of the National Bibliographic Agency in achieving it. John D Byrum, Jr. http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla71/papers/124e-Byrum.pdf

• Northern Caroline State University Library catalogue –http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/browse.html ( browsing using Marc data)