New Search Option Enters Testing Phase
New Search Option Enters Testing Phase
In 2008, Villanova University launched VuFind, a search option that provides a Google-like interface for a library’s complete holdings. Librarians at Villanova found VuFind particularly attractive to students due to the speed with which it refines and filters search results.
The Auburn University Libraries recently established a working group to test Vufind: Marliese Thomas, Clint Bellanger, Nancy Noe, Bob Buchanan, Greg Schmidt, and Tony Oravet. This fall, the group will seek the thoughts of library faculty and staff, as well as Auburn students, regarding this search option.
VuFind provides an enhanced search experience for students and includes book covers and user-generated comments, as well as “facets” to quickly refine and filter search results—just like commercial Web sites. It also includes item-level records for the Libraries’ digital collections. For example, if a student searches for Amelia Earhart in Auburn’s version of VuFind, he/she would not only find the 23 records in the traditional library catalog, but also photographs from Special Collections that have been scanned and tagged with her name.
The VuFind committee is getting the software ready for public testing. During this time, you will be invited to participate in focus groups and offer your thoughts on this interface. We want to get as broad input as possible especially from those of you who interact with patrons on a regular basis. Participation will not take much of your time (and yes, the focus groups will have food!).
We hope to offer access to students on a trial basis sometime during the 2009 fall semester if it passes rigorous internal testing and development. VuFind sits on top of the Voyager catalog—it doesn’t replace it. This means that those of you who use the Voyager desktop clients to search for records will not be affected and will see no change at all.
You can find the VuFind test site at http://javacat.lib.auburn.edu/. Please remember that this site is under development and may not contain all of our catalog records. Please use the feedback button to report any problems or make suggestions. Also, remember that there will be a Library Forum on July 15th during which VuFind will be demonstrated.
