I’ve decided to start from the VuFind homepage and to branch out from there. I tried the live demo of VuFind. My initial reaction? This is a wonderful tool for the visual learners out there, myself included. The questions I will be asking myself as I dig deeper include:
Is VuFind just a pretty face? A sort of face lift for online catalogs? What can VuFind do and how powerful a tool is it? Who benefits from VuFind and how?
After reading through the support mailing lists and looking at the installation directions it seems I am up against a steeper learning curve than I realized. I had assumed VuFind was a kind of plug and play deal. Or even on par with a Firefox skin; a new look to download for your OPAC. I was wrong.
I feel a little daunted by the language of the installation instructions, for example:
Install PHP with following requirements:
–with-pear
–with-ldap
–with-mysql
–with-xsl
–with-pspell
–with-pdo-oci=instantclient,/path/to/oci,10.2.0.2 *
I don’t know what this means. At all. I’m pretty sure it won’t be feasible to implement and install VuFind in RL (not because I couldn’t figure out how, but because it might be harder than I thought to find someone who will let me fumble around with their Voyager account to this extent). However, I do think I can master the vocabulary, learn the language, read the research and reactions, and write a persuasive proposal for implementation. I’m considering targeting my proposal toward the Wisconsin Historical Society, and perhaps more specifically, their archives catalog (ArCat).
So, in my next VuFind post, after more investigation, I’ll tell you about the cool things VuFind can do.
This is wonderful! Good on you!
I agree that an implementation is probably a bit ambitious. I also agree that you can definitely do a project plan!
If you’d like, I can try to hook you up with the proper people at WHS (no guarantees, but I can try). Drop me an email if you like.