We talk a lot about what library catalogs could look like, but who is building them? Well, Andrew Pace and NCSU for one. Here is the press release announcing their new Endeca-powered OPAC. Why is it different? It focuses on relevance instead of some arbitrary criteria — our OPAC at one of my old jobs would list DVDs by add date, so all the ones that showed up at the top a search list were labeled “IN PROCESS” and thus not available to patrons — and allows simple search narrowing. Andrew explains more. Don’t let me blather on about it, check it out yourself (and notice the slick URL while you’re at it). [web4lib]
2 thoughts on “NCSU Libraries new “pig butchering” OPAC”
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Thanks for this info. Quite interesting, and innovative work, as it looks at the outset.
But, I think there are a few other efforts to push, pull, and outreach – all in-order-to make the library catalog user-friendly.
See my research on Information Visualization, and Mining the library catalogs. A link to this is at my blog.
This item is also at my Website http://taher.cjb.net [look for ‘Alternative Cataloging / Information Visualization’].
I am also with dmoz.org, building the information visualization category.
I Will appreciate your feedback. Best.
Wow, this is a lot closer to the catalog of my dream, including several features that I’ve been thinking since I entered library school a year ago (with a bachelor’s in CS)—why the heck don’t catalogs do THIS, or THAT. The ncsu one, they’re trying. Excellent, I find this very exciting. This is where catalogs have to go for libraries to remain relevant.
So, graduating from library school in six months–how the heck do I get a job doing stuff like that?
Note that they didn’t go with an ILS/OPAC vendor to make that catalog do that, the vendor appears to be non-library related. Which is a commentary on something.