A “Next generation” library catalog - Executive summary (Part #1 of 5)
July 7th, 2006 by Eric Lease MorganThis is the Executive summary of a text outlining an idea for a “next generation” library catalog. In two sentences, this catalog is not really an catalog at all but more like a tool designed to make it easier for students to learn, teachers to instruct, and scholars to do research. It provides its intended audience with a more effective means for finding and using data and information.
The full text of this document formatted as a single HTML page is available at:
Executive summary
People’s expectations regarding search and access to information have dramatically changed with the advent of the Internet. Library online public access catalogs (OPAC’s) have not kept up with these changes. The proposed “next generation” library catalog is an attempt to address this phenomenon. It’s design less like a “catalog” — an inventory list — and more like a finding aid. It contains data as well as metadata, and it is bent on doing things with found items beyond listing and providing access to them. It is built using open standards, open source software, and open content in an effort to increase interoperability, modularity, and advocate the free sharing of ideas.
Technically speaking, this “next generation” library catalog is a database/index combination. The database is made up of XML files of various types: MODS, TEI, EAD, etc. The index is a full-text index supplemented with XML-specific elements as well as Dublin Core names. End-user access to the system will be through a number of searchable/browsable interfaces facilitated by SRW/U. Services against individual items from the interfaces (such as borrow, download, review, etc.) will be facilitated via OpenURL.
The implementation of this “next generation” library catalog is divided into a seven-step process:
- Allocate resources
- Answer questions regarding information architecture
- Conduct surveys, focus group interviews, and usability studies
- Create/maintain the “next generation” library catalog
- On a daily basis go to Step #4
- On a quarterly basis go to Step #3
- On an annual basis go to Step #1
July 8th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
[...] A “Next generation” library catalog - Executive summary (Part #1 of 5) [...]
July 10th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
[...] On the LITA blog, Eric Morgan has created an in-depth five-part series about A “Next -generation” Library Catalog, which he describes as not a catalog at all, but instead a tool for students, teachers, and scholars to conduct research. This is part 1, but I’d readily suggest checking out all five parts. [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 8:53 am
[...] The discussions about the OPAC and all that ails it go on unabated. I will acknowledge that the tone of the conversation has shifted from mere complaining to a greater focus on ways to improve the OPAC. For example, see Eric Morgan’s discussion of the next generation catalog posted at LITABlog. Given all the discussion about why the OPAC needs to improve you would think that academic libraries are besieged with complaints about the library catalog. Somehow I doubt that this profession’s concerns about the OPAC are shared by library users. As evidence of that I turn to the recent OCLC “College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources” report. When the respondents were asked “If you could provide one piece of advice to your library what would it be?” a mere 2% of the respondents suggested improvements to the local library online catalog (see page 4-6). They were much more focused on improving collections and computing facilities in the library. So if 98% of library patrons (Ok, I know it’s statistically inappropriate to extrapolate this finding from a small sample to all academic libraries) have no real concerns about the OPAC, why is there such a fuss being made about fixing something that’s broke? On a day-to-day basis in your library do you see patrons having massive search failures with the OPAC? Are they demanding enhancements? I recall that when I worked at the University of Pennsylvania the greatest patron reaction to the debut of our then new web-based Voyager OPAC was a mass call for the return of the telnet-based catalog. The new OPAC was simpler by far, but patrons percieved no problems with the telnet system which did just what they needed. I agree that we should always be working to improve our systems and make research a more satisfying experience for our user communities, but reports like the OCLC study suggest that our patrons are more concerned about “quality of life” factors such as having working photocopiers, good customer service and up-to-date book collections than they are about their library’s catalog system. Are we focusing our priorities in the right places? I think I’ll remain content to wait for my ILS vendor to tweak our OPAC while we direct our attention to getting students to use the library’s resources and services. [...]
July 12th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Let’s face it. There’s a strong inferiority complex among the library profession in general. Along with this comes a noticeable sense that librarian feel as though they are in the shadows of the internet, and for some reason should be just as popular as an information resource. While I am all for rthe continuous improvement of our useful tools (cars, stoves, mouse traps, library catalogs, anything), this is essentially another attempt by librarians to say, “look at me! we’re the internet too!” Why don’t we look for ways to improve library tools, sure. But lets look at our driving motivations when doing so. Libraries are libraries, whatever that means in this day of the library identity crisis.
July 24th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Eric, thank you for posting your vision for a “next generation library catalog”, and for taking the lead at ALA to bring together some of the individuals who are already working to explore the possibilities of an open-source system library system (and for posting the notes from that meeting: http://infomotions.com/musings/ala-2006/)
It was clear from our discussions at ALA that your vision for a next generation catalog as you’ve articulated it above is very much in line with our vision at the University of Rochester for the development of the eXtensible Catalog (XC) http://www.extensiblecatalog.info
My colleagues and I at the University of Rochester will look forward to continuing this dialog with you and with others in the future, so that we can fully explore the viability of a collaborative open source system.
Thank you again, Eric, for urging more people to start thinking about this possibility!
(I’ll post a few most specific comments on sections of your document below)