THE VIRTUAL ILLINOIS CATALOG (VIC)

Jan Ison

Lincoln Trail Libraries System

OCLC Advisory Committee for Public Libraries

June 6, 2000

OVERVIEW

• LIBRARY COOPERATION IN ILLINOIS• CONSORTIA BASED AUTOMATION• VIC -- THE BIG PICTURE• CONFIGURING SITE SEARCH FOR VIC• BACKLOADING HOLDINGS INTO OCLC• RESOURCE SHARING• Q & A

Library Cooperation In Illinois

• Illinois Library System Act, 1965. 1982

• 12 Library Systems

• More than 2700 ILLINET Members (Academic, Public, School, Special)

• Funding from the State of Illinois through the Illinois State Library

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Lincoln Trail Libraries System

• Membership Organization of Libraries

• 116 Full Members– 7 Academic

– 53 Public

– 41 School

– 15 Special

• Geographically based in 9 Counties of East Central Illinois

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LTLS Technology Services

• LINC– Shared Automation

• Began in 1978• Grants from Illinois

State Library

– Dynix• 74 Members

– All Types of libraries– Academic, Public,

School, Special

– Bibliographic Database• 1.65 Million Holdings• 586,000 Bibliographic

Records• 205,000 Patron Records

• Automate Local Library Activities

• Circulation• Cataloging• Acquisitions• OPAC• Serials

LTLS Technology Services

• Resource Sharing – Patron Initiated ILL

• Holds

• Wide Area Network– Dedicated Circuits

– Internet Connectivity

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Other Illinois Technology Consortia

• Local System Vendors– Epixtech

– GEAC

– Innovative Interface (III)

– DRA

– CARL

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VIRTUAL ILLINOIS CATALOG (VIC)

• Goal– Seamless Searching and Reserving of Materials

for all Illinois Citizens on Illinois Bibliographic databases (Ideally beyond Illinois)

– 1996– Phased Approach

• OCLC Site Search -- The Search Engine

• OCLC Resource Sharing

VIRTUAL ILLINOIS CATALOG (VIC)

• The Library Resources– Holdings of 600 Illinois libraries – Provides location, call number, and shelf status– Access to more than 55 million items in the

state

• Available 24x7 through Internet Access

Configuring Local Systems For VIC

• Set-up Local Z39.50 Server• Provide ports or simultaneous users for

access to VIC• Determine Z39.50 use attributes for mapping

searches• Only keyword searching with current VIC

SiteSearch version-- No browse searching• Build additional Z39.50 indexes

Setting up OCLC Site Search For VIC

• Require commitment of resources on both the system and state level - Java and HTML programmer (WebZ is not plug and play)

• T-1 Connection

• 250+ WebZ/SiteSearch licenses

Adapting OCLC Site Search For VIC

• HTML Interface (Modified the Out of the Box Interface)

• Evaluation of searches (Looked at searches)

• Online help development

• Interim ILL e-mail component

• Online training courses

Issues To Consider In Configuration

• Java programming• Inconsistency across

automation systems• Z39.50 standards

implemented at different levels

• Indexes

• Need to be able to map use attributes

• May need to build additional indexes

• Location of holdings data varies greatly across ILS

Demonstration Of VIC

• Here’s an online demonstration of a search, using the VIC product. VIC is accessible through the Illinois Secretary of State’s “Find-It” site

• VIC Web Site: www.vic.lib.il.us

• Findit Web Site: findit.sos.state.il.us

OCLC Holdings Backload

• BackLoad the Holdings into OCLC

• Full Users

• Selective Users

• Contract price for each Local Database Loaded

Resource Sharing the Illinois Picture

• LINC -- Direct Holds (LTLS Area)

• VIC -- Email (Illinois Libraries)

• ILLINET Online -- Direct Holds (Illinois Libraries)

• OCLC -- First Search -- Patron Initiated

• OCLC -- ILL Module (Illinois Libraries/Nationwide & Globally)

Issues and Next Steps

• Exporting Records -- Date Stamping

• Install next version SiteSearch for de-duping records

• Implement statewide Z39.50 “profile”

• Response Time• Enhance html

interface• Utilize customer

comments to enhance product

CONTACT INFORMATION

• Jan Ison jison@ltnet.ltls.org

• LTLS Web Site: www.ltls.org

• VIC Web Site: www.vic.lib.il.us

• Findit Web Site: findit.sos.state.il.us