Managing OPACs :Approaches to the process of OPAC change and development

Del ShiersManager, Collection Services

Murdoch University LibrarySeptember 18th 2006

Outline

• Shared bibliographic database• Approaches to ongoing management

of change• OPAC redesign project (4th quarter

2005)• Future directions?

Shared bibliographic database• Murdoch University (5 libraries on 3

campuses)• Murdoch, Veterinary, Curriculum Resource Centre, Rockingham

Regional Campus Community Library, Peel public, university, TAFE and high school

• City of Rockingham Public Libraries (3 libraries)

• Safety Bay, Warnbro Community, Rockingham Regional Campus Community

public, university, TAFE and high school

• Peel Education Campus• Mandurah Senior College

university, TAFE and high school

Shared bibliographic database Ongoing management includes:

• Public library data: circulating State Library of Western Australia collection

weekly loads of ‘Advance Order’ and ‘Exchange’ data files

• Schools Catalogue Information Services subject headings for high school use

indexed separately from LC headings

• Annual CAUL statistics returnsAccurately report on changes to the University component of the databaseand similarly report to SLWA for the public library circulating stock

• Quality control

Shared bibliographic database• Before any change to the OPAC all

stakeholders must be involved in decisions

• Data presentation must suit a range of users, from pre-schoolers to post-doctoral research fellows

Use ‘scopes’ to control OPAC views of the underlying bibliographic data, appropriate to each user group.

Managing OPAC change

• Murdoch Millennium User Group meets every two months. Membership drawn from all levels of library staff plus stakeholder representatives

• Reports (at Murdoch) to the Strategic Quality Improvement Forum

• Role includes the assessment of new software releases, timing of software upgrades and assessment of new products

• Joint agreement on changes affecting user populations

OPAC redesign project 4th quarter 2005Basic principles:• Align OPAC page design with Library

web pages • Use standard III web page templates

and amend them• Main search options on initial OPAC

screen • Consideration of diverse user

populations

Search options

Scopes

Issues addressed during the project• Radio buttons vs drop down menu boxes• Guided searches• Colour (so as to remain distinct yet not

conflict with the City of Rockingham OPAC pages)

• Short time frame (few face to face meetings, many decisions made via email consensus)

• Book cover images

City of Rockingham

Search options

Scope menu

KidsOnline interface start screen

Issues addressed (continued)• Short time frame (few face to face

meetings, many decisions made via email consensus)

• Book cover images

Future directions

• RSS feeds for new books• How do we communicate with our

users? Blogs and/or wikis for the IGen users?

• Loading a new set of bibliographic data from Department of Agriculture and Food WA library