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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Opensource ILS projects and how I learned to love the library catalog

okay, pardon the bad pun on dr. strangelove...

I've been following some of the opensource ils projects with interest. evergreen (launched by the Georgia Public Lib System), is still in heavy development. From my understanding it originally launched without acquisitions or serials checkin (eeks!) ; however from an upcoming presentation flyer it appears that acquisitions will launch or has launched very soon.
Anyhow, it's an interesting project and I finally got around to checking out their wiki.

At one conference I attended, the evergreen presenters (truly it is trotted out at every possible opportunity) was demonstrating its ability to save searches as RSS feeds, which would then be updated.

Another project is scriblio, which is a wordpress installation that works in conjunction with a library catalog. Plymouth State Library is now using scriblio. You can read an article about here and see it in action here.

I couldn't find an example of a Voyager library using scriblio, but I'm sure someone out there somewhere is using it.

Another interesting project is VUFind, which I've read will work with a Voyager library catalog. VUFind is touting itself as having the ability to search (and display) seamless results between the library catalog, digital collections, and institutional repositories. I like a lot about VUFind -- very easy to read. I love the ability to pull out citation info (wonder if this works with EndNote?). Other features include faceted search results, citations in MLA or APA (not sure if other choices), tagging, commenting, reviewing, and oia syndication.

I couldn't find RSS feed/search, but it would seem like that would be a feature (?)

Give the demo a whirl yourself. OR better yet... go see it used with a Voyager catalog.

George Mason University (a Voyager library) has a test installation up at
http://zoombox.gmu.edu/vufind/

Update: 9/12: test installation is not working. ;-(

For those who are interested, the MARC view/technical view is under the tab "Staff View"

To read more about the features of VuFind, check out VuFind's website:
http://www.vufind.org/features.php

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