Boy, did I open a can of worms asking colleagues what they would like in an OPAC! Whew! I am a bit disheveled from the exchange. In a nut shell, people started duking it out over federated searching. I assembled the comments for your pleasure. They are a bit random but interesting. You will be able to get through them quickly, I think. Maybe they are not interesting at all.
Yes, one can only hope that the end result of health care would not be human remains!
I just looked at Endeca and it doesn’t appear to use a federated search feature. You still have to search for articles separately. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/searchcollection/
I like Endeca a lot better than Aquabrowser, although it still came up with some really oddball results. I did a search (sorted by date) for
1.
Mis cases : decision making with application softwareAuthor: Miller, M. Lisa.Published: 2007.Format: Book
D.H. Hill Library
T58.6 .M53 2007
Stacks (8th floor)
Available
2.
Human remains : guide for museums and academic institutionsPublished: c2007.Format: BookOnline: View resource online
D.H. Hill Library
CC79.5 .H85 H87 2007
Stacks (3rd floor)
Available
3.
Essentials of accounting for governmental and not-for-profit organizationsAuthor: Copley, Paul A.Published: c2007.Format: Book
D.H. Hill Library
HJ9801 .H39 2007
Stacks (4th floor)
Checked Out
.
Switching the search to sort for relevance yields, predictably, more targeted, but older, results. The layout is really nice, though. And you do have the option of doing a more “traditional” search, if you want.
No doubt federated searching is no panacea. However, I asked everyone to DREAM BIG – PERFECT WORLD. All of the pie in the sky will be distilled to realistic, oh say, donuts from a vending machine. Let me go back to Margaret’s comment about BEAUTY. I love it! BEAUTY!
There is the KLA Academic Library Section spring conference in April. This has potential for a lively discussion. I’ll be happy to moderate – I’ll even wear a black and white shirt and bring a whistle along in case the federated searchers get out of hand. All joking aside, I think this could be an interesting discussion for a conference and that we EKU librarians could make an excellent presentation for either side.
I probably should stay out of this discussion, but I must say that I agree with Brad and Kelly. Ease of use is wonderful but precision is very important as well. Kelly and Brad are saying what I believe to be true.
we might wind up trading away precision for coverage."
Absolutely. Brad said this better than me. And I know that Google is a great search tool, but when comparing it to federated search tools, don't forget that it has the advantage of only needing to search one database (the www) - granted, that's a huge database, but it's different from searching things on multiple platforms with multiple types of files. Plus, why do you think that Google separated out "Google scholar?" In an effort to get more precision about the type of information found.
What we need is for the searching within each area (ILSs, article databases, etc.) to be more Google-like.
Maybe we should all do a panel presentation about this at some conference! "To Google or Not?: EKU librarians duke it out over federated search." :)
What I meant was that I feel that it is important for the student to have at least a dim understanding of the searching and finding (and especially the evaluating) process, and not just lazily throw a couple of keywords into a “black box” search window and get a gob of results that they probably only look at the first 10 or so, anyway. I hate wasting time teaching tools as much as the next librarian, but I’m afraid of the old “if you have a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail” mentality and that we might wind up trading away precision for coverage.
I would LOVE to have a effective federated search tool. I just don’t think it is here yet. I may be wrong, but I haven’t seen one yet. And yes, this is difficult for me too. I love old stuff, but I love the new geeky stuff, too. So, I’m torn.
Don’t you love these philosophical debates?
From your friendly neighborhood Nerd… Geek… NEEK! J
What I meant was that I feel that it is important for the student to have at least a dim understanding of the searching and finding (and especially the evaluating) process, and not just lazily throw a couple of keywords into a “black box” search window and get a gob of results that they probably only look at the first 10 or so, anyway. I hate wasting time teaching tools as much as the next librarian, but I’m afraid of the old “if you have a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail” mentality and that we might wind up trading away precision for coverage.
I would LOVE to have a effective federated search tool. I just don’t think it is here yet. I may be wrong, but I haven’t seen one yet. And yes, this is difficult for me too. I love old stuff, but I love the new geeky stuff, too. So, I’m torn.
Don’t you love these philosophical debates?
From your friendly neighborhood Nerd… Geek… NEEK! J
When I want to begin looking for information on a topic, I go to Google first as a reference tool. I agree that navigating a difficult tool does not make a critical thinker. I often find students get lost in the process of looking for information rather than on reading and digesting the retrieved information. I think it would make instruction more interesting, at least for us. What would we teach if we didn’t teach to the tool?
I’m with Julie on this one and I am a huge “don’t spoon feed them” advocate. Navigating a difficult tool does not a critical thinker make? A critical thinker is made in the exchange in the mind of the user and the information at hand. Understanding how that information is made is of utmost importance. I don’t think that falls to merely the old journal article/book/website discussion any more. Now it is a discussion over a blog, wiki or open source journal. The lines are terribly blurred these days and, as Julie so aptly said, instruction time would be better spent examining information – thinking about information -- rather than demonstrating a crusty tool. Anyway, just my opinion of course. And, by the way, I love crusty tools so this is difficult for me!
Geek, nerd, what ever…it’s on Marcum!
I agree with Betina. I would prefer that the vendors start listening to what we want and for us to stop accepting the mediocre products they have provided us with. I don't think that a federated search would be spoon feeding our students. We live in a Google world. I love Google. I would rather use google than our library catalog, or any of our databases. I could spend so much more time in a library instruction session teaching real information literacy skills like evaluating information if I did not have to spend so much time teaching them how to use 14 different products.
I also have some serious reservations about whether federated searching has arrived yet. Kelly did a great job encapsulating the challenges of federated searching, but... We are talking about what we'd like in a perfect world, right? Like Betina said, the only way they will get better is if we force the issue.
That said, the "one stop shopping" aspect of federated searching is the most important to me. I think we should expect a certain level of critical thought from students, however. We are not doing them a service by spoon feeding them their information.
Just my 2 cents...
P.S.
Is that a challenge, Betina? :-) I can be a pretty nerdy nerd when I put my mind to it! Anyway, I prefer the term, "Geek".
I agree library systems vendors are not so good at federated searching but if they would hire really good programmers, I am not sure it is not possible to do it well. The problem, I think, is that libraries/librarians shy away from FORCING vendors to create an exceptional product. We accept what they offer us and humbly back away
from saying -- hey, that is not so good! Everything that I have read
supports all of the pie-in-the-sky accoutrements ya'll would like to have in a catalog. So, we are not alone! I am watching "homegrown" open source catalogs spring up because librarians are getting fed up with the vendors lack luster products. Perhaps exchanges, like the one taking place here, will make their way to vendors. The blogsphere is full of complaints about the inflexibility of library catalogs; eventually someone will have to take notice.
Cristina, you should take a look at the catalog at NCSU. I linked to it in my original message. It is interesting to play with because you can't tell when you are in the catalog and when you are on the webpage.
Betina
I love this discussion! OK, OK I am a the biggest nerd...when will we have THAT competition. I think I could go toe-to-toe with Marcum on that one!
I'm very much on the same page with Kelly , but she expressed it so much better.
We sort of tapped into this topic in our WAG meetings: we're currently discussing a better way of organizing our resources (books, articles, databases, journals, websites, catalog, print, electronic, more links on a library website, less links, etc., etc.), as part of our efforts to doing a complete website redesign. And it's been interesting for me to follow the discussion from this point of view.
Spelling correction definitely
Federate searching, at the moment, is not a panacea. As far as I understand it, true federated searching (where it will search all of your catalog, and all full-text databases, and everything else) is not currently workable. At workshops I've attended, speakers recommended limiting the number of databases included in the federated search to 10 or less because otherwise the search would be exceedingly slow. I personally don't think that students should expect a Google-type search to give them everything they want. Part of learning to be informed and critical thinkers is to learn how to discern between different sources of information. I guess I'm looking for a happy middle-ground between the way it is now (very confusing) and the way the students want it (Google).
I haven't had a chance to analyze Endeca, but I saw a demonstration of Lexington Public Library's version of AquaBrowser last year and was not impressed (it was fine for finding popular titles in a public library, but for academic research-type topics, it led users down a lot of dead-ends and gave a *lot* of completely irrelevant results).
I think an ILS will need the capacity to be versatile and incorporate new trends and technologies. I think it needs to be more user-oriented, but I'm not sure if it should be *the* portal for library news, etc. I think it should be a tool accessible from all parts of the library's website (quick search box on every page, for example), but I don't think it should be the jumping-off point. I think a community section fits better on the website.
Ideally, it will include open-url and other features that enable it to integrate well with other systems.
I’m throwing in 2 cents more. While we are at it let’s get records for the stuff we own actually in the catalog, whatever it may be. We have several collections of periodicals on microfilm down here that show up in WorldCat but not in our catalog. So, if our patrons search our catalog, they have no idea that we own something called Early British Periodicals or American Periodicals Series. We copy from and lend this stuff all the time to other libraries who search WorldCat, but I would guess that very few of our people know the stuff exists here in our collection.
I was a test dummy for the Voyager folks not too long before I came to EKU. I was asked to preview the mock-up of a new version of Voyager they were working on. One of the features I loved about it was the view of the cover of the item (book, cd, video). That was SO nice. They also showed how they had incorporated a “My Library” tab. I wasn’t sure students would be especially fond of the whole “My Library” idea, but some users might like that concept. (the ability to create a customized list of items based on the individual’s interest) I am not so sure about the whole federated search idea, though when I saw demos of it at ACRL two years ago, I thought it was neat.
It seems that one of the best ways to improve our OPAC is to make it more user-friendly, whatever that will take. Make it something that students enjoy coming to and see the value in. Add chat screens like companies have so that if students need help while they are on a certain page (trying to decipher a location, call number, whatever), they can get help immediately. (meebome widgets are doing this now)
You guys are coming up with some great ideas! J
I forgot to bring up the covers – that’s part of my idea of beautiful. And not just book covers – DVD covers and CD covers would be great too.
Dream on . . . and the Systems and Technical Processing Division will make sure your dreams (if they come true) will run smoothly. Right, Todd?
Agreed on all points here! I really like Nicole’s ideas. And I keep thinking in the back of my mind that sites like Amazon work well because of features such as these. And while we’re at it, how about showing book covers and chapter snippets!
How about dreaming as big as possible?? Something that would excite our users and us? Something easy to navigate? I would love something that looks – ok – beautiful, something pleasing to the eye, something that does away once and for all with the card catalog look. I could ramble more, but need to do like Julie, and read more of the information that you, Betina, so graciously sent out to us. BTW, I’m glad you are on the committee; you will certainly contribute, and you will find out who is on the same page in the state with us.
Ditto everything that Julie said! Federated searching all the way. That's one of the biggest things the students get confused about -- where they need to go to look for articles vs. books vs. if we have a journal vs. good websites. And you know what? They shouldn't have to take extra steps, they should be able to go to one place to look for everything.
I would also like to see an ILS that makes setting up RSS feeds easy. Faculty, staff and students should be able to subscribe to feeds for new books, new journals, everything.
I would also like to see the ILS include a community section. A place where the university community can provide reviews about books or even journals and databases! A place where the Library can share what's happening in the library, put up quick 3 - 5 surveys for feedback, and share photos of the Library, neat things our librarians our doing. and photos of students and student employees in the library.
How about dreaming as big as possible?? Something that would excite our users and us? Something easy to navigate? I would love something that looks – ok – beautiful, something pleasing to the eye, something that does away once and for all with the card catalog look. I could ramble more, but need to do like Julie, and read more of the information that you, Betina, so graciously sent out to us. BTW, I’m glad you are on the committee; you will certainly contribute, and you will find out who is on the same page in the state with us.
Betina,
For starters, I’d love to be able to access the Table of Contents and the Index from the catalog. It’s a more efficient way of knowing if a print resource is going to be relevant to your research.
I saw a demonstration of aquabrowser and was unimpressed. It's categories and connections led down really unfruitful pathways. I havent' looked at endeca yet.
Have you read much about Web 2.0? There are interesting implications for ILS's, if we care to be forward-thinking.
http://www.imakenews.com/sirsi/e_article000505688.cfm
http://www.librarycrunch.com/2006/03/paul_miller_on_web_20_library.html
Colleagues,
I have been appointed to a SAALCK committee charged with exploring options for the next Integrated Library System (ILS) shared by the state. Committee members hail from a variety of library backgrounds. My sub-group and I were chosen for our public service experience. Discussions are very interesting as you can imagine. While all facets of an ILS are being explored and discussed, my sub-group is focusing primarily on the OPAC. Many of you attended last semester’s Future of the Online Catalog program at UK and have kept up with the literature regarding the evolution/demise/martyrdom of the OPAC.
Of course, I have definite opinions, but I want to represent librarians here at EKU, sooooo…..tell me what YOU think. What do you want in our next catalog? Dare to dream big: think conceptually. Our recommendations will eventually wind up in a Request for Proposals. Until then, anything goes. E-mail me, stop me to chat or call me to give your valued input.
To get your creative juices flowing, I have included links to interesting commentaries. Needless to say, these merely scratch the surface of the tip of the iceberg! By all means, look elsewhere.
1) White Paper on the Future of Libraries and the Rise of Library 2.0 http://www.talis.com/downloads/white_papers/DoLibrariesMatter.pdf
2) Follow the OPAC Sucks sermon at TechSource:
Part 1: http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/03/how-opacs-suck-part-1-relevance-rank-or-the-lack-of-it.html
Part 2: http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/04/how-opacs-suck-part-2-the-checklist-of-shame.html
Part 3: http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/05/how-opacs-suck-part-3-the-big-picture.html
3) Blyberg’s ILS Customer’s Bill of Rights
http://www.blyberg.net/2005/11/20/ils-customer-bill-of-rights/
4) Check out the Endeca Catalog at NCSU to see a totally different take on the OPAC: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/searchcollection/ or try Lexington Public’s Aquabrowser: http://search.lexpublib.org/.
posted by Betina @ 5:20 AM
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