Next‐Gen Library Catalogs

Citation

Žumer, M. (2011), "Next‐Gen Library Catalogs", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 45 No. 1, pp. 122-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330331111107457

Today libraries are facing stiff competition: other players are active in the information landscape and their innovative information discovery tools are, compared to traditional library catalogues, more inviting to the today's “web‐savvy” user. In order to remain relevant end expose their added value, particularly the wealth of their bibliographic data, it is therefore urgent for libraries to consider developing new interfaces to their bibliographic information. In this book, Marshall Breeding offers an “all‐in‐one passport to today's cutting‐edge library catalogs”.

In the preface the author emphasises the intention of writing a book that is readable by a broad range of professionals in libraries: from non‐technical staff to systems librarians and library administrators. The first three chapters set the stage. The first focuses on justification for the transition from the status quo of legacy library catalogues to next‐generation concepts. The second describes in more detail the main features of new tools such as faceted navigation, relevance ranking (called “relevancy ranking” throughout the book), visually enriched displays, search term recommendations, personalisation, user‐contributed reviews and ratings, grouping of related materials (FRBR is mentioned in this context), tag clouds, virtual shelf browsing and visual search tools. The need for providing comprehensive access to all resources from a single point of entry is discussed, too. All are illustrated by main features and implementation examples of major currently available products. The chapter concludes with advice on necessary groundwork for implementation of a next generation catalogue. The third chapter deals with implementation: advice on how to integrate the new tool with the existing integrated library systems (ILS), how to extract and import data into the new system, and how to import data from external sources. Considering that the development is fast, the author points out the need to follow the developments and be ready to continuously implement changes.

Chapter 4 is about marketing. The new discovery interface is described as an important way to promote the library through a variety of marketing channels. Chapter 5 focuses on maximising the effectiveness of the discovery interface: maintaining high‐quality metadata is listed first. At the same time the author cautions against striving for perfection before moving forward. The concluding chapter is on evaluation. The use of some analysis tools is briefly described.

There is a list of references and related resources (many available in open access) and an index. There is also a companion wiki and podcast at http://techset.wetpaint.com.

This book provides an excellent general overview of the next generation catalogues and the content is arranged systematically following the implementation path from the justification of the decision to implementation, promotion and evaluation. The technical details are explained in a way that is accessible to the general audience and a broader picture is always provided to position a topic within the context. Many examples illustrate the subjects discussed. In addition, there are always references to currently available tools to guide the reader when actually implementing a new generation catalogue. There is not much missing; if the text is revised in the future, evaluation is an area that could be further developed to cover more than usage analysis.

Many will find the book useful: (non‐technical) librarians will find the motivation to consider developing improved information discovery tools and guidance on the difficult path of implementation. They may also use the text to justify the developments to the management and funding bodies. System librarians and technical staff will benefit from the general overview of the subject and the positioning of the new discovery interface within the existing ILS and other library services. The book should also be considered by educators as mandatory reading for courses in library automation.