Comments on: ALA – Resuscitating the Catalog http://www.flexyourinfo.com/ala-resuscitating-the-catalog/ show off your information Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:08:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Heather http://www.flexyourinfo.com/ala-resuscitating-the-catalog/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Heather Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:48:00 +0000 http://www.flexyourinfo.com/?p=232#comment-39 Hi Dawn - I can see how that would be really confusing! I found it interesting too that at the <a href="http://www.flexyourinfo.com/ala-social-software-showcase/" rel="nofollow">Social Software Showcase</a> the person who presented the mobile version of their library site said that their search defaults to their Primo search (another discovery layer), but that it currently wasn't working so you had to use their classic search. Obviously a lot of issues around the addition of discovery layers to catalogs... I did read the open source software article yesterday and found it to be great, and quite thorough. I have only had experience with Drupal (just playing around with it personally), but I'm excited by all the possibilities. What he talks about in the article about libraries hiring programmers is where I think we should definitely be moving. Hi Dawn – I can see how that would be really confusing! I found it interesting too that at the Social Software Showcase the person who presented the mobile version of their library site said that their search defaults to their Primo search (another discovery layer), but that it currently wasn’t working so you had to use their classic search. Obviously a lot of issues around the addition of discovery layers to catalogs…

I did read the open source software article yesterday and found it to be great, and quite thorough. I have only had experience with Drupal (just playing around with it personally), but I’m excited by all the possibilities. What he talks about in the article about libraries hiring programmers is where I think we should definitely be moving.

]]> By: Dawn http://www.flexyourinfo.com/ala-resuscitating-the-catalog/comment-page-1/#comment-38 Dawn Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:11:40 +0000 http://www.flexyourinfo.com/?p=232#comment-38 Thanks for sharing this, Heather! It is great for people who couldn't attend ALA. The comments from Beth Jefferson really resonate with me. Her proposal of "less is more" and "making the catalog personal" make sense and are definitely areas I think libraries need to explore. I know that the San Francisco Public Library uses Encore in addition to its regular OPAC, but the way that they use it can be confusing to a lot of people. They place an Encore search box directly below the regular search area, with no indication of why someone should use one over the other. I do prefer to use Encore for my searching, but many times it has not be working properly when I was searching for a book. There was a great post just yesterday on <a href="http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/" rel="nofollow">The Library with the Lead Pipe</a> talking about <a href="http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2009/w-e-b-s-i-t-e-find-out-what-it-means-to-me/" rel="nofollow">open source software for libraries</a> that you may find interesting. Of the software listed, I have only dealt with Scriblio. I can confirm that the documentation is horrible, but I am interested to see where it can go in the future. Thanks for sharing this, Heather! It is great for people who couldn’t attend ALA. The comments from Beth Jefferson really resonate with me. Her proposal of “less is more” and “making the catalog personal” make sense and are definitely areas I think libraries need to explore. I know that the San Francisco Public Library uses Encore in addition to its regular OPAC, but the way that they use it can be confusing to a lot of people. They place an Encore search box directly below the regular search area, with no indication of why someone should use one over the other. I do prefer to use Encore for my searching, but many times it has not be working properly when I was searching for a book. There was a great post just yesterday on The Library with the Lead Pipe talking about open source software for libraries that you may find interesting. Of the software listed, I have only dealt with Scriblio. I can confirm that the documentation is horrible, but I am interested to see where it can go in the future.

]]>