introduction to discovery layers- june 23b
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Introduction to Discovery Interfaces
Toronto, June 23rd, 2011
Andornot Consulting Inc.
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What is a Discovery interface?
Simplest iteration: An alternate or Next-Gen interface to
your catalog or other database search interface
Other options: Include information on holdings and
circulation status etc. from your ILS Search multiple different content types
through one interface
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Why is a different interface needed?
Popular websites: Amazon Home Depot Etsy NASA Images
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Traditional ILS OPACs
Toronto Public Library Classic Discovery Interface
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What do these new web interfaces have in common?
Facets Did you mean? Handling of
misspellings Deconcatenation Add to list/favorites Book cover images, record type icons Social media options
Reviews & ratings Related material suggestions
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What about existing ILS vendors?
Limited introduction of discovery features Alternatives
API provided by the vendor Z39.50 Direct queries against ILS tables
Libraries therefore turning to different vendors or open source solutions for OPAC
Usually do not need to migrate data – can continue to use existing system for library administrative functions
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Library Discovery interfaces
Rapidly gaining in popularity in academic and public libraries
http://www.librarytechnology.org/discovery.pl
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Implementations from Library Technology Guides
Leading commercial vendors: AquaBrowser (370) BiblioCommons (127) ExLibris Primo (106) Sirsi Dynix Enterprise (128) Summon (55)
Leading open source products: Blacklight (3) VuFind (79)
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Local implementations
Ontario Toronto Public Library – Summon? University of Toronto – Summon? York University – VuFind Ottawa Public Library - BiblioCommons University of Ottawa – Endeca
BC UBC – Summon on top of Voyager VPL – BiblioCommons
Alberta University of Alberta - WorldCat University of Calgary - Summon
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Why consider a discovery interface?
Functionality that end users now expect Search versus Discovery
Cater to both needs Precise versus Serendipity
Time to get rid of silos Librarians like to create separate interfaces –
users find them confusing Allow users to refine after search, not
before Develop with end user in mind!
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Status check
Where are the corporate or special library or archives implementations?
Minimal mention at conferences eg. SLA, CALL, CHLA, ACA
Most commercial solutions hosted in US Possible security implications? Shared indexes Confidential information
Cost and IT support requirements an issue
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Open source solutions supported by Andornot
Based on Solr an open source search server based on Lucene powers major websites such as the
White House, LinkedIn, CNET, Yelp, Trove etc.
1. Custom implementations▪ Unique or very specialized applications
2. VuFind▪ primarily bibliographic data, but some archival and
museums
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VuFind
Developed by Villanova University Library near Philadelphia Beta release in June 2007 Version 1.1 released March 2011
Designed as a next generation library catalog Implemented in over 70 libraries
worldwide Various usability studies with glowing
reviews Very active developer community Demo
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Notable VuFind sites
National Library of Australia National Library of Ireland HathiTrust London School of Economics Auburn University York University Yale Digital Commons Catholic Research Resources Alliance(From http://vufind.org/wiki/installation_status)
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Features of VuFind
Faceted browsing Date ranges Material Types Language Deconcatenating subject headings & call numbers
Did you mean? / Spelling corrections Traditional options
Alphabetic browsing and keyword searching Advanced search
Related material
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Features of VuFind (2)
Mobile search interface Comments, reviews and tags Patron created usernames /
passwords login Saved searches RSS feeds Multilingual interface Statistics on user searches to
highlight what users are looking for, and perhaps not finding
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Ability to integrate external content
Google Books for covers etc. LibraryThing for reviews Wikipedia for author biographies Hathi Trust for full text Google Scholar Amazon reviews Commercial providers – Syndetic
Solutions
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Import options
MARC XML
DB/TextWorks Access FileMaker Almost any other system
Extract full-text from Word docs, PDFs, etc.
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Export / harvesting options Available already in VuFind – export to:
RefWorks EndNote Zotero
OAI-PMH Harvester and server PHP-based utility to harvest content from
OAI-PMH data providers Automated sitemap generation for
indexing by search engines
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Advanced options
Inclusion of information on holdings and circulation status etc. from your ILS Some web services already written, eg.
for Voyager, Innovative, Aleph, VTLS Requesting or reserving items
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Federated search
More complex iteration to add other data sources such as licensed content: Serials Solutions / Ebscohost etc. Provides single search across catalog
and journal articles. Add other source data to index.
Extract from other database software Inmagic, FileMaker, Access, ContentDM, Excel
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If VuFind is open source why can’t clients implement it themselves?
Relatively simple to set up assuming some knowledge of Linux / Ubunto or Apache / MySQL / PHP Solr MARC XSLT’s
Learning curve to configure and customize Similar consulting model to LibLime &
Bywater Solutions for other open source software such as Koha and Evergreen
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What costs are involved?
Underlying VuFind software is open source: no cost to purchase no ongoing maintenance fees
Cost for Andornot assistance based on requirements: Hosted or own server? Data source or sources? Configuration options Support plan level
