Open Source and the National Library of Australia Catalogue
In late 2007, the National Library started work on a project to investigate the feasibility of using a freely available open source product called VuFind (www.vufind.org) as an alternative OPAC interface. The Library was looking for a product that combined all the functionality of traditional library catalogues with some of the Web 2.0 features found in other popular web applications. The product also needed to have the flexibility to allow customisation of screens, record displays, search fields, indexes etc. and link into other data sources such as the Library’s Voyager LMS (Library Management System), Amazon, Wikipedia and other Library systems. The aim was to enhance access to the Library’s collection and better satisfy the needs of our users by offering a simple interface with an underlying ‘cleverness’ that delivered the best possible search results.
A rapid-prototyping approach was used for this process instead of the normal time and resource intensive process of detailed functional specifications and extensive and lengthy consultation and internal testing. It involved a very small team of people from the Library’s IT, cataloguing and information services areas. The standard VuFind software was installed and very soon after, we had a few short meetings to decide on the core functionality the system had to have before going live, and also compiled a wish list of other desirable features. Initially the main areas of development concerned linking into the e-callslip system provided by the Library’s Voyager LMS to enable online requesting from VuFind, displaying detailed holdings and serial check-in data, and providing format specific limits for searching.
With these features in place, plus some work on search indexes and relevance ranking, the prototype was ready for testing by staff and a selected group of researchers just before Christmas 2007. The whole process to reach this stage had taken less than two months.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with many comments praising the clean, simple search interface, the display of narrowing options to drill down and refine the search results, and the improvements in item requesting. Relevance ranking in particular has been vastly improved with the aid of real searches undertaken by our research users. Since using VuFind more than one researcher has indicated finding additional resources they never knew the Library held. They have become very enthusiastic about providing examples of difficult searches once it was realised that their comments were responded to and the results derived from these comments soon evident in improved VuFind performance.
Many very helpful suggestions have also been received regarding additional features that would be desirable. The flexibility of VuFind and our approach to development has allowed us to be very responsive to these suggestions, and new functionality has been swiftly added to our development version, tested by the small prototyping team, and promptly rolled out into production. Users have therefore witnessed a constantly evolving product that has incorporated their ideas.
The prototype catalogue has now been released to the general public and is available at http://protocat.nla.gov.au. The prototype catalogue will continue to evolve. New functionality will be reported on the VuFind home page and via the Development link on all of the catalogue pages. Please give it a try. We welcome your feedback and you will find links to a feedback form on all of the catalogue pages.
The success of this project can be attributed to the small group of dedicated staff comprising the prototyping team, the helpful and enthusiastic VuFind community who have freely shared their knowledge and advice but, most importantly, our users comprising fellow staff and researchers. The Library’s involvement has also been enthusiastically received by the VuFind community as we share the knowledge gained from our specific installation.
Stephen Lacey
Acting Director, Serials Branch
and
Julie Whiting
Manager, Serials Branch