Future developments

Search

During the 2012-13 financial year, Libraries Australia will be redeveloping the Libraries Australia Search Service. This redevelopment will ensure a faster, more stable search experience for Libraries Australia members. Libraries Australia Products, the Record Export Service and Z39.50 services will also be redeveloped.

In the lead up to this redevelopment, we are conducting a review of the Libraries Australia services. This review is designed to ensure that, in a changing environment, we are offering the highest-value services to Libraries Australia subscribers. We are looking at which services are being provided, the possibility of adding new services, and whether services should be offered in a different way. As part of this review, more than 500 people from more than 350 Libraries Australia subscribing institutions contributed to a detailed survey about Libraries Australia services. The review will also involve site visits, interviews with leaders in the Library sector and an environmental scan. Results from the review will be published for discussion in 2012.

Libraries Australia welcomes all input into the review. If you have any information or comments, please contact:

Alison Dellit
Business Architect
Libraries Australia Review
(02) 6262 1098
or email adellit@nla.gov.au

Cataloguing

CBS upgrades

A configuration release of the CBS cataloguing software which underpins Libraries Australia is scheduled for early 2012. The main component will be support for the RDA-related MARC 21 changes.

Implementation of a new version of CBS , CBS 6.0, is scheduled by mid-2012. Among other improvements, CBS 6.0 includes SRU enhancements; CBS Job Manager, which will enable staff of the Libraries Australia office to undertake tasks such as global changes which are currently performed by IT staff at the National Library or at OCLC Leiden, and a number of improvements to match/merge of authority records.

A later configuration release will contain other changes to our match/merge processes needed to manage RDA records in our database.

Linking of bibliographic and authority records

Early in 2012 we plan to implement functionality in the CBS cataloguing database that will automatically link bibliographic and authority records. This development will allow us to offer LA users an authority file product that contains authority records that are linked to bibliographic records to which the library has added a holding.

Data Exchange

SRU Record Update is a protocol which supports the exchange of records in real time. It is an approach to data synchronisation which results in faster sharing of bibliographic records. It is used for sending Australian library data to WorldCat, the global library catalogue, in real time.

Libraries Australia is the second service in the world to use SRU Record Update to WorldCat; the Dutch Union Catalogue was the first. Greater benefits can be achieved as more libraries implement the protocol. The National Library of Australia recommends that libraries consider including SRU Record Update support as a requirement when they are purchasing new library management systems, or when requesting enhancements.

Libraries Australia would like to hear from libraries interested in testing the use of SRU Record Update to receive records from library management systems in Australian libraries, to increase the responsiveness and usefulness of record-sharing.

Other National Library services also provide data using this protocol, see NLA APIs for further details.

Document Delivery

A new version of the Libraries Australia Document Delivery software, VDX 4.1.4, was implemented in December 2011. Further configuration changes will be applied to take advantage of the new functionality offered by this version, including requesting to the British Library.

Libraries Australia plans to implement another version of the Document Delivery software, VDX 6.0, in late 2012. Improvements will include:

  • Faster work queue display
  • Ability to copy an existing work queue and change it
  • From work queues, ability to obtain statistics, including performance timing; logs; explain
  • User alerts based on item format
  • Lock and allocate requests to staff members
  • Bug fixes
  • Unicode support

Libraries Australia plans to implement a Suspension and location script for the benefit of those libraries that use their own ISO ILL compliant interlibrary loan systems to interoperate with LADD. The script will support the following on VDX satellite systems:

  • Addition of new locations
  • Cancelling or disabling locations which are no longer requesting
  • Suspending/un-suspending locations
  • Changes to the address details of a location

Although the Suspension and location script has been developed for VDX satellite systems, it is hoped that with some development work, non-VDX systems will also be able to benefit from it.