In a previous post I laid out for myself the task of discovering whether or not VuFind is more than just a face lift for a wrinkled OPAC. I wondered about the power and capabilities of VuFind and I decided to learn if it went more than skin deep.
It does. While VuFind does change the look of your online catalog, it does much, much more. Here are some of the highlights:
- Faceted results
- Live item status (AJAX querying)
- Suggests “More like this”
- Provides Author Biographies
- Persistent URLs
- Citation management at the catalog level
- Tagging, rating, and comments
- Spelling correction
- OAI syndication
- Runs on Solr=Fast
- Translations: French, Japanese, Chinese, and more to come
These are very good things. These are things that a catalog should be able to do. This is more than a face lift, this is an upgrade to the newest, best, and most current. VuFind creates a “next-generation” catalog and in the nick of time. Some of these features, like faceted results, rating scales, book cover images and patron commentary, reflect features that made Amazon so user-friendly and successful.
Other great news about VuFind? It’s free and open source, so you can modify it to fit your needs. In the future VuFind will also feature web-based administration, circulation statistics, and suggested resources.
Try it out for yourself (alpha version) VuFind at George Mason.
I’d be happy to put you in touch with Wally Grotophorst (AUL for Systems at GMU Libraries) to talk about his experience implementing VuFind.
Wally used to be my boss.
Hi,
I am the interface developer for Vufind, and have been following your research on Vufind. We try to be as responsive as possible on the support mailing list, so if you have any problems we highly suggest you post them there: (http://vufind.org/support.php)
Also, if you have more general questions feel free to send Andrew or I an email or give us a call: (610) 519-8745.
We hope future development will eventually make the barrier of entry much simpler.
Best,
Chris
Chris,
Thanks so much for your post, I really appreciate it!! I certainly will take you up on your offer to answer general questions as I continue my research. I am very impressed with VuFind’s possibilities so far, and I look forward to the day when all OPACs (and patrons and librarians) benefit from it.
Best regards,
Danika