I’ve been thinking a lot about VuFind’s claim that it opens up the catalog and enables users to browse. For this post I will compare the visual results of a search for “Hamlet” using VuFind and MadCat (my university’s online catalog).
A basic, words anywhere search for “Hamlet” in MadCat brings us to a results screen that looks like this:
In contrast, a basic, words anywhere search in VuFind looks like this: *Note the images of items, the option to “Add to Favorites”, the ability to narrow your search by Format, Author, Topic, etc., and the live item status.
Now to compare item records… a MadCat record looks like this:
In contrast, a VuFind record looks like this: *Note the image of item, tagging option, and patron review feature. The VuFind record also shows similar items.
- With a quick glance at the images I’ve provided, which appeals to you on a purely aesthetic level?
- Which has features that you or your patrons might find useful?
- And which, from this brief visual comparison, does a better job at “opening up” the online catalog so users can browse its contents?
Voyager/MadCat looks pretty stodgy, of course. VuFind is a lot prettier. I think the faceted browsing in the search screen is really neat, and something every catalog should have. That’s real power in “opening up” the catalog.
I’m not sure I like that VuFind makes you click again for Holdings (“Where’s the book?” seems like primary information!), but again the presentation of the record is cleaner and easier to read. The reviews seems like a questionable feature for an academic library, but a neat thing to have for a public library.
Tagging seems like a neat feature too, but I’m not convinced it would work. You need a lot of people tagging to make it useful, and it might take more users than any individual library or system has. Once enough libraries decide to include user tags, maybe somebody will come up with a way to share those tags, so all the tags from all the users can be searched at all the libraries.
Tags are used to organize favorites in VuFind (a lot like del.icio.us). So whenever someone adds a favorite in VuFind and gives it a tag for their own organization, that tag is added to the public record. However, unlike del.icio.us you can’t see other people’s favorites, due to privacy concerns.
This might not be apparent in the online demo with only one user. As more people add records to their favorites, more records get tagged.