SirsiDynix User's Group Meeting - Oct 23rd, 2009

The meeting, at Cerritos College, started off with a sales presentation of a public catalog add-on product called Enterprise. I think SD has missed the mark on what a library catalog really needs. Enterprise is supposedly a portal product that when a user searches, they'll get results from the Internet, databases, and the catalog. That large result set will just confuse the average library user imho.
Then the group broke off into 4 user groups: Tech Services, Sys Admin, Public Service, and Ask SirsiDynix. I went to the SysAdmin group and mainly found out that other libraries also had to pay for new Telecirc replacement module and it wasn't a free replacement. However, during the SD morning sales presentation they did mention that if Horizon customers migrated to Symphony it would be a "free" upgrade and we would just have to pay for service charges. That would be cheaper than buying a whole new ILS outright.
Finally, the last third of the meeting was a talk by Stephen Abram. His entire slideshow will be posted on his blog site at http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/ Some interesting points from his talk were:

• The top 10 presidential campaign contributers were copyright owners - A large majority of them were foreign. This is on his radar because he is involved in the Google book digitization project of over 150 million books.


• Thinks that in the next 5-10 years most non-fiction will be digitized.


• Thinks libraries should be geo-tagging cardholders to find out demographic usage.


• Future is shifting to experience-based learning instead of transactional-based.


• USA is experiencing a brain drain of knowledge, India building 500 new universities and China over 1,000 in the next few years.


• USA needs to remain competitive in a knowledge based community and we can't wait for everyone to catch up when it comes to adopting new technology.


• Some small town in Virigina has installed broadband on a television channel so if you get can get a TV signal you can get free broadband. Government focusing on broadband for rural areas.


• Top circulating materials were books on Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology - not because they're teaching that in schools but because World of Warcraft players are writing avatar essays.


• Kids are smarter than generations past. Top website draws are news, weather, sports, celebrity gossip.


• 1 in every 6 pages viewed on the Web is Facebook.


• Library is the only government entity that people visit by choice.


• Some creative ways to engage patrons - A library in Wyoming got hundreds of mp3 players preloaded with 3 audiobooks and shipped them to overseas military along with library cards so they can continue to use the library's downloadable audiobooks via the Internet.


• Libraries should put up photos of their star staff, storytellers, do podcasts, storytime videos - Number 2 search engine is Youtube. Offer paying fines by Paypal.


• End users value Community, Learning, and Interaction.

What a library catalog really needs

After 8 years of supporting a public library catalog, I think I know a thing or two about the failings of catalog systems. I recently viewed a sales presentation on SirsiDynix Enterprise, an add-on catalog product. It was woefully off the mark on what a library catalog needs.

1. Stability - a catalog system needs to be rock solid and go down very seldom. I am surprised how often our current catalog server goes down and services need restarting. Will buying a catalog add-on product make our catalog more stable? I think not, they need to give me a more stable system not a band-aid.
2. Reliability & Low Maintenance - It is ridiculous the amount of manual reindexing required to keep our current system working properly. This should all be automated. Staff shouldn't have to manually run indexing programs to keep the system working correctly. Will adding Enterprise help to automate mass indexer?
3. Fuzzy-logic spell check - Enterprise did offer this, but when I mistype a title, the system should be smart enough to give me close approximations. The Enterprise suggestions weren't as good as Amazon's system. With Amazon, it offers book results that are currently popular, with Enterprise, it only offers word correction suggestions.
4. Suggestions - If you like this, try this - Another of Amazon's strong points is offering suggestions of other similar books, I didn't see Enterprise offering this. Why can't they program the catalog to suggest the most popular books based on the number of checkouts? When I search for a book, I don't care if it is the 25th edition or the 1st edition, can't they program the catalog so that it's smart enough to say you want Grapes of Wrath - here's the most popular one (based on number of checkouts).
5. Book reviews and ratings - Enterprise did offer this. These days a good catalog system will allow people to rate books and reviews.
6. Book Lists - Amazon lets users create book lists and an inventory of their books. The My List feature of our current catalog is terrible. It limits the amount of books that users can keep. I think Enterprise's limit was 200, and with every upgrade we've had, the users' lists were wiped out. I have no faith that our catalog system won't lose a users' list.
7. Facebook Apps - I don't think Amazon has this yet, but I currently use weRead and it lets me share books I'm reading with my Friends, keep track of books that I want to read, currently read, and have read. Furthermore, there's a handy link that says "Buy this book" or "Find this at a library" that connects to Worldcat which really should be connecting directly to my library's catalog.
8. iPhone App - We're on Horizon, but this should be standard in an ILS vendor's catalog offerings.
9. Large Results Display - The Enterprise result screen was a small square in the middle. It should be like Amazon's and show me the book and its cover in large bright color across the screen. I shouldn't have to be distracted by two side columns of extraneous info.
10. Show me Catalog Holdings Only by Default - SirsiDynix seemed very proud of the fact that Enterprise can offer federated searching - pulling in results from the Internet, Databases, etc. When users come to a library catalog they want to find the library's books not other stuff that would only confuse them.