Could this blog be your next OPAC?
…well, not LINT…but the blogging software that runs it, Wordpress.
Casey Bisson, from Plymouth State Universty Library, has just received the Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration for his WPOpac, which uses Wordpress software to run the OPAC. You can see it in action here. Search to find your item, which displays as a post on which you can comment.
The “My OPAC sucks” movement took off in a big way, after Karen Schneider’s two articles here and here, at ALATechsource.
Libraries buy ILSs that do accounting, acquisitons and circulation very well. Uncluttered screens and very few keystrokes are important, as staff will receive extensive training and eventually “just know” that to renew a book they use CTRL U R A .The problem comes when the public search interface is “tacked on” to this.
Tim Spalding, founder of LibaryThing took it to another level yesterday when he outlined the difference between a library OPAC (you HAVE to use it to find your books) and LibraryThing (you WANT to use it because it’s fun): Is your OPAC fun ? (a manifesto of sorts).
WPOpac attempts to separate the “management” side of things from the public interface. The software is Open Source and well used, so it has hundreds more people working on it than any ILS. As Casey says…
The only thing I’m certain of is our need to find ways to make our systems easier to use, easier to extend, and integrated into the larger stream of progress that’s shaping the internet ….
You can read more about the award in his press release.
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