Online catalogs are dynamic and always unclose to improvements Not in like manner long ago--last April to be exact--I deliberation my library's online catalog.

Online catalogs are dynamic and always unclose to improvements

Not in like manner long ago--last April to be exact--I deliberation my library's online catalog, QCAT, was as upright as an OPAC could be. We steady went so far as to print up 200 mouse pads with the image of the OPAC's front rank screen. I was constantly fine-tuning, moreover as far as I was bear uponed QCAT was complete. Then, a number of things happened to shake me public of my stupor.

First, I went to a conversation and saw a presentation through someone who had done remarkable things with an OPAC. After that, our OPAC's software was enhanced to allow for a whole suite of personalized applications for our elucidation users. In addition, the reopening of Quinnipiac's vastly remodel library forced us to create fresh ways of describing the building's layout. Finally, in rewriting the help riddles I hit upon a way of handling recent book lists that has already started saving population a lot of work and has implications far beyond our library. As the late Mr Sinatra would deposit it, "It was a exceedingly good year."

A Gathering of Innovators

Each spring, the libraries that hasten Innovative Interfaces' online catalog clinch the 3-day Innovative Users collection Annual Conference. Last year it was in Philadelphia. level though this was my fifth as it is conference, it was the first the same in which I was simply an attendee and didn't have to speak or help race the show. My only obligation was to attend sessions and result back with some good ideas.

While getting my name tag, I came across Karen Perone the incoming president of the Innovative Users assign places to She mentioned that her library, the Rodman Public Library in Alliance, Ohio, was using OPAC links fields to add work reviews to the standard bibliographic records. That way, a patron finding a record in the catalog can not simply see if the book is checked revealed but can also see what reviewers said about the title. This is exactly the kind of idea I contemplate for at a conference, and my library was able to make religious use of it.

united of the most inspiring sessions was instanted by Kevin Cullen, a theorys librarian from Colorado State University who spoke about OPAC Web design. He convinced me to abandon the idea of using paragraph that looks like graphics and instead incorporate actual graphics that would allow me to add "alt" messages that describe a search. (You'd be surprised at the number of race who think that an "author" search finds works "about" an author.) He said that through adding these graphics to secondary protections you allow the users to change search degrees without going back to the main menu--and make use of the efficiency of browser cache files for a fast protection load.

As Cullen talked about the importance of contrast, I felt a dagger slipping into my heart. an of our screens displayed dark azure letters on a light down in the mouth background. He also talked about the fancy that goes into search examples. If a search within your library's OPAC displays the title "Letter of Millard Fillmore," you had better make steady that such a book is in your catalog, because race will want to use the examples you give.

I left Philadelphia with a treasure-trove of ideas and a commitment to give QCAT a whole facelift.

The Design Process

The redesign of QCAT got underway in the last month of the spring semester For political reasons, we designed buttons for Author, Title, and enthrall searches that included the sect colors. The face of the original QCAT main menu cloak had been royal purple, unless I finally had to give that up and chose a light beige for beneficial contrast. The biggest changes were in the secondary riddles where the actual searches were made.

At least one time a day, I would go on foot to the reference area and point out to off the work in progres united day, somebody walked in when the Author search was up forward the screen and said: "Ooh that's neat. What is that?" I knew I was getting there. Because family can make instant skips between author, title, make submissive and keyword screens, I base that I had to work hard to make the guards identical. The other librarians warned me to wait until the last day of classes before I made any real-world changes to the catalog. I followed their advice and introduced the recently made known QCAT after the semester ended

Beyond a recent Look

Another thing that stuck in my mind from the parley was the idea of linking from bibliographic records to work reviews. At a public library, this would mainly be used for generally received popular items, but at Quinnipiac University, I could envision using this for scholarly material. united of our most frequently asked questions from scholars is, "Do you have a review of this book?" If the OPAC could automatically answer this question, our library would be a happier place. To that close I made a list of each book the library owned about the Civil War, as well as each biography. A student assistant of mine patiently checked each title to see if a review could be originate in JSTOR. Since we have a lifetime commitment to JSTOR, its reviews strike one as beinged like a stable source of information.