HCL 2.0 » OPAC of the Future http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20 \"The Web is unlocked--resistance is futile.\" Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:45:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ OPACS of the Future http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/opacs-of-the-future/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/opacs-of-the-future/#comments Fri, 04 May 2007 16:38:10 +0000 hcl20 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hcl20/2007/05/04/opacs-of-the-future/ NOTES

There were quite a few sessions devoted to the updating/improvement of library OPACs, but because we are not directly involved with Havard’s OPAC we only attended a couple. Highlights follow.

  • Library OPACS broken in 3 ways: usability, findability, remixability
  • Bring OPAC/catalog front and center, don’t hide behind a website
  • Allow inbound links and link outwards
  • OLD web site – like a mall, tries to keep users in; NEW web sites link out as much as possible (in the end brings more users back to site)
  • Some universities are already employing RSS feeds to announce new acquisitions
  • Users don’t want OUR content, they want THEIR content
  • Users don’t want just a book listing, they want information that they can work with–share, annotate, mashup
  • The creator of LibraryThing is about to roll out some tools for OPACS

QUESTIONS

What can HCL do to encourage the develoment of a facile, user-friendly OPAC?

How might we encourage ULC/OIS to do some usability testing of student users and use what they learn to inform new developments?

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