Customising the Voyager 7.x OPAC

or, “giving a tired OPAC a wee facelift”

Alex Forrest – University of Edinburgh

Gill Hamilton – National Library of Scotland

Colin Watt – University of Edinburgh

SDLC AGM, 25 Nov 2009

So, how much of a Facelift ?Let’s look at the new

OPAC…

• About the new OPAC• Brief look at some SDLC sites • Basic Branding of the “skin”• Search types• Changing Quick Limits• Content enrichment• Integration with Website• Extras eg social network tagging,

spellchecking, etc.

http://main-cat.dev.nls.uk/vwebv/searchBasic?sk=en_US

About ….

http://main-cat.dev.nls.uk

NLS facial scrub ….

A facial scrub costs ….

Example Voyager 7.x OPACsAberystwyth University

showing the use of alternative skins for localisation:http://voyager.aber.ac.uk/choose.php

Manhattanville College Library, NY, USAembedded search box:http://www.mville.edu/Library/Default.aspx

Monash University Library, Australia

another embedded search box:http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/

and basic search:http://library.monash.edu.au/vwebv/searchBasic

Colorado School of Mines, CO, USAhttp://catalyst.coalliance.org/vwebv/searchBasic?sk=en_US

example showing email & print options:http://catalyst.coalliance.org/vwebv/search?searchArg=goats&searchCode=GKEY%5E*&limitTo=none&recCount=50&searchType=1

Tarrant County College, TX, USAhttp://library.tccd.edu/vwebv/searchBasic

example showing social network tagging:http://library.tccd.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=371861

What skills do we need ?

Basic Branding• eg conversion of existing classic OPAC

File Structure, Layout, CSS

Advanced Layout & Functionality• eg enriching content and extending functionality

More CSS, XSL, XML & Javascript

Integration with existing website• eg more fundamental redesign of institutional website(s)

Advanced CSS, Java, Content Management tools

What Next ?We need to know what members want• Basic Rebranding, Significant Redesign, or Aquabrowser ?

Workshops & Tailored sessions• SDLC better equipped to do this than Ex Libris

Guidelines & Best Practices• SDLC to establish some basic guidelines

Timescale ?• Ex Libris ending support for the classic opac ?

Testing • Did we mention testing ?

Useful Links @

Voyager customers using 7.x OPAChttp://www.exlibrisgroup.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=13764440

SDLC Test area for 7.x OPACs (Academic Hub)http://eul-ft.lib.ed.ac.ukhttp://uad-ft.lib.ed.ac.ukhttp://hw-ft.lib.ed.ac.ukhttp://eca-ft.lib.ed.ac.ukhttp://roe-ft.lib.ed.ac.uk

SDLC Test area for 7.x OPACs (Special Hub)http://main-cat.dev.nls.uk/http://mss.dev.nls.uk/http://sbo.dev.nls.ukhttp://signet.dev.nls.uk/http://boslit.dev.nls.uk/

Questions ? Contact UsAlex ForrestUniversity of Edinburgh

alex.forrest@ed.ac.uk

Gill Hamilton National Library of Scotlandg.hamilton@nls.uk

Colin Watt University of Edinburgh

colin.watt@ed.ac.uk

Special thanks to Steve Scott for making much of this possible.