another next gen catalog option - primo

This morning, I'm attending a presentation led by Jody Combs and Dale Poulter (pictured above) of Vanderbilt University on Vanderbilt's primo development partnership with Ex Libris. Jody's moving quite quickly thru a survey of Vanderbilt's work. VU has a SirsiDynix Unicorn OPAC, along with Ex Libris OpenURL tool. VU implemented MetaLib as part of the implementation of primo. (Somewhat analogous to the WSU Libs, though we use a Innovative Interfaces ILS. I talked with Tate Nunley of Ex Libris last night, who informed me that Ex Libris is actively looking for an Innovative library to serve as a primo development partner.)

Vanderbilt provided info to Ex Libris on usability issues, but noted that the University of Minnesota served as the primary primo development partner in the usability area.

This presentation is much more informative than the UW Libs/WorldCat Local presentation. Must be a product of the state of product development and each institution's respective confidentiality agreement.

Another source of information, along with Unicorn, is the Vanderbilt TV News Archive, a resource that I used in Nashville between my undergrad and grad studies (circa 1990). (Where else would you find a tape of Richard Nixon taunting demonstrators outside of the San Jose Civic Auditorium in the fall of 1970??)

Dale is describing information customization options, with the option of views specific to subject libraries (example, the Divinity Library). Definitely a trend that we need to follow at the WSU Libs (that is, interface personalization).

Jody is leading a demo of the Vanderbilt primo instance. The default search is for Acorn (the library catalog) and the TV News catalog, combined. Importantly, this instance has a spellchecker functionality (unlike the WorldCat Local site that I searched yesterday). Based upon my own experience and some examples provided by the presenter, spellchecking is a critical system need. In reviewing records, Jody commented on the FRBRized records. Also, there are significant Web 2.0 features built into the software, such as pushing record information to Connotea and del.icio.us. (To see this, do a search for a book record in Vanderbilt primo. Then, look for the Save dropdown menu on the right side of the screen.)

Dale just went thru the primo administrative module, noting that search functionality (such as the default operator: default 'and' versus exact search). He noted that this can be set at the interface and at the tab level within primo. This makes sense if you look at the Vanderbilt instance. For the default operator example, he noted that default 'and' might be a good option for an undergraduate interface or tab; exact search a better option for graduate students. Again, strong support for interface personalization.