Volume 15, Issue 1

Volume 15 , Number 1 Library Catalogs and Other Discovery Tools (Spring 2009) | Pages July 2014 Volume 15, Issue 1 (2014). Volume 15, Issue 1. OLA Quarterly, 15(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1721 © 2014 by the author(s). OLA Quarterly is an official publication of the Oregon Library Association | ISSN 1093-7374 OLA Quar terly Library Catalogs and Other Discovery Tools Perspective on Catalogs The Evolution of Library Discovery Systems in the Web Environment The Library Catalog as Experimental Sandbox Reflections from Menucha LibraryFind™: The Development of a Shared Library Platform at Oregon State University Libraries The New Summit: Building the Foundation for Enhanced User Services Building Catalogs in the Sand Legacy Metadata and the New Catalog Northwest Digital Archives: Evolving Access to Archives and Special Collections in the Northwest A Usability Survey of Keyword Searching Using a University Library’s Catalog OLAQ Spring 2009 Vol 15 • No 1 Oregon Library Association http://www.olaweb.org ISSN 1093-7374 OLA Quarterly Spring 2009 Vol 15 • No 1 The OLA Quarterly is an official publication of the Oregon Library Association. Please refer questions and input regarding the Quarterly to: Diane Sotak OLA Publications Chair 5000 North Willamette Blvd. University of Portland Portland, OR 97203-5798 503.943.8047 phone 503.943.7491 fax Graphic Production: Tobias Weiss Design 7345 SW Deerhaven Drive Corvallis, OR 97333 phone 541-738-1897 www.tobiasweissdesign.com Library Catalogs and Other Discovery Tools 2 Perspective on Catalogs John Repplinger 5 The Evolution of Library Discovery Systems in the Web Environment Mark Dahl 10 The Library Catalog as Experimental Sandbox Tom Larsen 13 Reflections from Menucha Stephanie Michel 17 LibraryFind™: The Development of a Shared Library Platform at Oregon State University Libraries Terry Reese 20 The New Summit: Building the Foundation for Enhanced User Services Al Cornish 24 Building Catalogs in the Sand Wade Guidry 28 Legacy Metadata and the New Catalog Richard Sapon-White 31 Northwest Digital Archives: Evolution Access to Archives and Special Collections in the Northwest Jodi Allison-Bunnell 36 A Usability Survey of Keyword Searching Using a University Library’s Catalog Elizabeth Ramsey Upcoming Issue Summer 2009 President’s Conference Issue OLA Quarterly is indexed in Library Literature. Library Catalogs and Other Discovery Tools O ver the last few years, it has become nearly impossible to read a library journal or attend a library conference without reading or hearing about “next generation catalogs.” Many thoughtful and vocal critics have pointed out that library catalogs are hard to use, do not include information users need, and do not measure up to the non-library sites our users frequent, such as Amazon and Google. Vendors and individual developers alike have responded, developing new systems and new models to help users discover the treasures their libraries contain. Some of this trailblazing work has taken place right here in the Pacific Northwest. In this issue, we feature the work of some modern-day library pioneers who are performing the hard work required to take our retrieval systems in new directions. The articles in this issue range from the unconventional (or allencompassing) to the visionary to the specific and concrete. John Repplinger offers a plea for more intelligent, flexible catalogs that can adapt to the changing needs of users. Mark Dahl shows us how we can help make this vision a reality by moving to networklevel, global systems that benefit from the participation of large numbers of users. Meanwhile, Tom Larsen argues that local catalogs still play a valuable role in meeting user needs, allowing libraries to present unique materials in creative ways that may not be possible in large-scale, shared systems. Stephanie Michael sums up these varying perspectives in her overview of last fall’s ACRL regional conference, which focused on next-generation catalogs. The next two articles describe a variety of projects intended to enhance access to library materials. Terry Reese discusses the development of LibraryFind™, an open source metasearch tool developed at Oregon State University. Al Cornish tells us about the Orbis Cascade Alliance’s partnership with OCLC to develop WorldCat Navigator, the product that now powers the Summit union catalog. In order to build user-centered discovery tools, we need to determine what users need and how they interact with our systems. Elizabeth Ramsey reports on her work doing usability testing of keyword searching in the Concordia University catalog, while Wade Guidry describes the changes made to Beachbooks, the Coastal Resource Sharing Network catalog, in response to usability testing. Allison-Bunnell tells us about the Northwest Digital Archives, a specialized retrieval system for archival finding aids, emphasiz- ing the role of usability testing in its design and development. Archival and other materials from special collections are also the subject of Richard SaponWhite’s article. Noting that many of these materials are not cataloged and therefore not findable using library discovery tools, he suggests some ways to tackle that problem. Throughout all of these articles, one message comes through loud and clear: our systems must be built around the needs and expectations of our users. Users should not have to do things the library way, using library search syntax and vocabulary. Users expect our systems to be as easy as the non-library systems they use regularly. The goal of user-centeredness, however, can be achieved in many different ways. Each library has unique collections and user needs, and this diversity is reflected in the variety of systems and models described in this issue. The key question is, How do we create and implement systems that best meet the needs of our users? We hope you find both inspiration and food for thought in the pages that follow. Guest editors Laura Zeigen & Janet Crum Oregon Health and Sciences University Library 1 Perspective on Catalogs by John Repplinger Science Librarian, Mark O. Hatfield Library, Willamette University 2 M y first experience with an electronic library catalog was a “dumb” terminal at the local library. I searched for the book The Wizard of Oz, and while I knew the author’s name and the title, it remained frustratingly elusive in the catalog. With some experimentation, I discovered that my title search failed because I excluded “The” as the first word. And my author search should have been, “Baum, L. Frank” instead of “L. Frank Baum.” At the time, I thought these were truly “dumb” computers with rules that were too stringent; I wondered how many people gave up in sheer frustration for not being able to find what they wanted. Fortunately, our electronic catalogs have improved considerably since then, yet there is still room for improvement. For the next generat (...truncated)