There are always lots of changes and improvements being made in the Auburn libraries that are very apparent to the users, but there are also many changes and improvements being made that are often invisible to the library patrons.  One of the things we are constantly updating is our electronic library system.  Although much of the beta testing we are doing is not apparent to the public, the library has been in a beta test of the new release of library software, Voyager, for the past two months.  The size of the Auburn libraries collection makes Auburn one of the largest libraries using this system and we also fully utilize all of the different modules for work production and the online catalog.  For those reasons we are one of the libraries that Endeavor, the company that developed the software, depends upon to be a part of the beta testing before each new release is completed.  This tends to also be a positive interaction for the libraries because we have input at the development stages of the software and can make suggestions about improvements before the final release.  It takes many hours of extra work and patience by a lot of the libraries’ staff, but we hope that by being a part of the project the end product is a positive improvement for the library patrons.

Another project we have been working on is updating our web browsers at the public terminals in the libraries.  Currently we are using Netscape as our default browser and will be changing to Internet Explorer over the next few weeks.  The most recent releases of our AUBIEcat online catalog have been written to standards established by Internet Explorer.  It became apparent after some testing that the searching on the public terminals was faster when we used Internet Explorer.  We will begin converting the public terminals to the Internet Explorer browser during the next few weeks.  Once again this change should not be obvious to the library patrons except that the appearance and placement of some of the icons will be different.  The reference librarians will be available for help and advice if there are any questions about this change.