The OPAC: Where We Stand, Late 2007

1. The OPAC:Where We Stand, Late 2007 K.G. Schneider College Center for Library Automation Tallahassee, Florida September, 2007

2. Access 2007 Preconference(Victoria, BC) Wednesday, October 10, 2007:  How to Skin an OPAC: Integrating Users with the Social Web A one day pre-conference on new and emerging trends/developments in the area loosely described as the "social web." What are the issues and implications for academic libraries in this area? How will it impact on our current online systems and services? Is there new software appearing that can be incorporated into our current online environments? http://www.library.ubc.ca/preaccess/

3. Why bother “Nothing will replace the look, feel, and smell of a dusty, old, age-cured card catalog, but it's been a decade or two since we made the switch and I think it's okay to consider making our OPACs special.” – John Blyberg, blyberg.net

4. Why theysuck

5. What I know about “search” Most people make typpos some of the time Most searches are two, three, or four words without Boolean operators Search is a hesitant, iterative, often random process of discovery Most people start elsewhere Nobody reads help screens Nobody uses “advanced search” Raw MARC records frighten end-users People want to like your software

6. Last-gen OPACs(Online Public Access Catalogs) Poor at known-item searches Weak at discovery Really bad at user engagement Digital content has to be attached like artificial limbs Walled gardens Out of sync with user expectations Policy driven by software limitations Lack emotional connection

7. Higher industry awareness

8. Progress and Problems Better OPACs abound! Conceptual models have changed or are being reexamined But… Some fundamental issues are harder to address

9. Next-gen OPACs:What’s Improved Ranking (relevance and otherwise) Spell-check Search as a single omnipresent box Recommendation functions Improved integration of digital content Overall better ease of use and lifestyle integration Software that is sometimes fun and engaging

10. Emotions matter“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”

11. Four Approaches Ditch the vendor OPAC and bolt a separate product on top of your ILS Go with an ILS that offers next-gen features Replace the catalog with a “unified finding aid” Wait for the vendor to catch up with state-of-the-art functionality

12. New (Or Renewed)Conceptual Models Decoupled modules User-centered design The ILS as middleware (and the OPAC as userware) Union catalogs Leveraging other people’s data and data models Enterprise open source

13. The value of open source Koha, Evergreen – proven products -- Industrial-strength, professional-quality Better vendor competition Healthier service orientation Actual fixes Disrupts the ILS market in a way that benefits the consumer

14. Conceptual Models Under Fire Institutional silos Worldcat Local is in production PINES has been live for over a year Librarians are openly questioning the cost/value of local metadata enrichment Stovepipe applications Stovepipe development Design that drives library policy Non-interoperability FODM (Funky Old Data Models)

15. Spell-check (last-gen)These errors cause up to 10% of all failed searches.

17. Spellcheck at Skokie

18. The ranking problem(Cream should float to the top) It is difficult to get ranking to work well in a surrogate-record environment But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try Surrogate record: a database record stands in for the object (such as a book) Digital object: the actual thing itself (ebook, full-text article)

19. Ranking, last-gen Real-world OPAC test of searching the term “million” (first-page results): Hog heaven: the story of the Harley-Davidson empire The rock from Mars: a detective story on two planets / Kathy Sawyer The Johnstown Flood Mosby's 2006 drug consult for nurses Hotel Rwanda Teens cook dessert

21. User expectations: location/availability on main pageUser expectations: location/availability on main page

23. Decoupling the OPAC from the ILS:Conceptual Readjustments The OPAC as a search engine for library materials Oriented toward user discovery and personal management The ILS as a suite of tools for collection maintenance Oriented toward library staff activities

25. Strengths of WorldCat Local Leverages quasi-global database Development driven by nonprofit organization with large research division Consistent look and feel from one library catalog to another

26. Questions about WorldCat Local Will development keep pace with user expectations? Will OCLC stay in this space? Will costs stay reasonable? How does this compare with the PINES approach?

27. Issues withDecoupling Eventually, the applications need to “hook up” Increased maintenance of effort at the library level Scramble to develop interoperability standards that meet realistic needs

35. Hard Problems to Solve Aging legacy data structure Why we have walled gardens Core taxonomy (LCSH) is complex, expensive, and non-intuitive Our record-based data Records versus content (surrogate records versus the objects) Getting “in the river” of user experience

36. Fluffy Bunnies(A personal list) Word clouds Tagging (without incorporating separate outside social content) Rate/review (without incorporating external social content) RSS (unless labeled and marketed very carefully)