From OPAC to CMS: Drupal as an extensible library platform

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to document how the library at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey Campus came to use the open source Drupal with other freely available tools as the basis for an extensible platform for current and future information discovery gateways.

Design/methodology/approach

After informal gathering of user opinions, formal usability testing of the current OPAC and Digital Library, and an evaluation of available options, Tecnológico de Monterrey's Library decided in October 2007 to build and test a prototype version of a new portal in April 2008, which after usability testing and interviews was improved and released for its users in June 2008.

Findings

The development team found out that Drupal, despite its steep learning curve, was a solid development platform which could achieve all the functionality the library set out to achieve through its freely available modules or custom, locally‐developed modules.

Originality/value

This paper documents the steps required to build an information discovery tool using Drupal and other freely available tools, thus demonstrating that Drupal is a viable and extensible development platform for libraries.

Citation

Garza, A. (2009), "From OPAC to CMS: Drupal as an extensible library platform", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 252-267. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830910968209