Dave,

What a great idea! Here are some ideas I'd like to see, although I
realize most changes would taint the results, so maybe they can be
used in the next survey someone does.

>The ability for your users to tag items in the OPAC (i.e. user
created folksonomies)...

I see this as two issues: (1) Showing and improving search with large
numbers of tags, and (2) Allowing patrons to tag things.

I want to separate them because I believe that libraries by themselves
will never get the critical mass to make patron tagging work, and that
most of the value does not emerge until you have that critical mass.
In my opinion, adding user-tagging to the OPAC *without* starting with
a large body of tags from elsewhere is likely to trivialize tagging
and to lead to failure and a loss of interest.

Although allowing patrons to tag things they're looking at has some
utiltiy, the biggest win comes with alowing patrons to browse and
search the library's books using terms like "chick lit," "christian
romance" and "cyberpunk." This is what makes LibraryThing's tag pages
so interesting, and so groundbreaking for discovery.

I recognize this point is in LbiraryThing's interest, since tag-data
is exactly what we're going to start offering. I beg your indulgence
to have the point taken seriously anyway.

>Embedding the OPAC into other places (e.g. portals, search engines,
etc) so that we take the OPAC to where the user is (rather than
forcing the user to come to the OPAC)...

It might be worthwhile to add "blogs," via widgets, presumably. Google
may be where people "are," but blogs are where they live.

>Enriched content in the OPAC (e.g. book covers, table of contents,
formal reviews, etc)

I'd love to see this broken out, and "full text selections (first
chapters, etc.)" added.

Lastly, I'd love to see "A mobile version" added. I want to be able my
local library when I'm about to buy a book at the bookstore.

Best,
Tim

On 3/27/07, David Pattern <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi everyone
>
> I'm running a brief informal survey about web based OPACs, their ease of
> use, and importance of various "2.0" features.  It would be great to get
> as many responses as possible, especially from Librarians and staff who
> are involved with the administration and/or development of the OPAC at
> their own library.
>
> If you have a couple of minutes to spare, then please consider
> responding:
>
>     http://www.daveyp.com/blog/stuff/opac.html
>
> I'll post the final results before I set off for the Library and
> Information Show UK in mid April, but there are already some interesting
> trends appearing!
>
> regards
> Dave Pattern
> Library Systems Manager
> University of Huddersfield
>
>
>
>
>
>
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