Theme Focus: Open Source

The key projects with an interest in open source are as follows:
- #OSSVIAB: Project to produce a detailed evaluation of functionality to UK Core Specifications requirements of the open source library system, Evergreen. [project blog]
- #BLATHULL: Case study examining the implementation of the open source Blacklight discovery interface system over the library catalogue at the University of Hull. [project blog]
- #JANGLEFB: Create API connectors (via the OSS Jangle framework) between the Sirsi Dynix library management system and Facebook [project blog]
- #CREDAUL: Project to select and implement an Open Source next generation resource discovery tool (http://vufind.org/) to contain all the records of Sussex and Brighton Universities. [project blog]
- #VUFINDKEVEN: project implementing a re-skinned VuFind interface for the Kent University library catalogue. [project blog]

There's an associated JISC/SCONUL event happening early next year which you might want to attend if you have an interest in open source and academic libraries. It's a 2-day event which is taking place in Edinburgh from Tuesday 25th January to Wednesday 26th January 2011 as part of Mashed Libraries:
- More information about the 'Haggis & Mash' event
- The registration page for the event

Tabbloid #6 5-11-2010

Open publication - Free publishing - More lmsmash

Last weeks Tabbloid is on the lean side with just three entries but as always it proves that quality, not quantity, wins the day - If you are interested in the techie side of VuFind then the #vufindkeven 'Developer's View of VuFind' will be an illuminating read and certainly shows that even a good piece of software leaves plenty of room for improvement when being implemented. The #blathull team hit an important final milestone in their project last week and had a big aha/doh moment of enlightenment when they implemented a single, unified search index and their experience provides the programme with a useful cautionary tale for anyone else hoping to do the same - happily it sounds like they solved the mystery without too much head scratching :)

Last Thursday David Kay and I had a catch up meeting with Ben Showers and over a cup of hot ginger cordial we discussed the following:
- Now that a good number of the projects have submitted their final report blogposts we'll start drawing together and reporting back on any emerging themes. Those emerging themes will be posted on this blog and comments and input from the projects will be very welcome - particularly suggestions for any additional themes that you feel are key for us to include in our final report.
- In the next couple of weeks Ben will be inviting you all to complete a survey to tease out further questions that we can explore in our synthesis report and also give you the opportunity to give feedback on the JISC LMS project process (i.e. using blogs to report on your progress, and the Google code site etc).
- All projects are welcome to attend the strand events. The closest to confirmation is the OSS strand event which will take place on the 25 - 26 January in Edinburgh. The event is piggybacking on the Haggis & Mash Mashed Library event on the 25th January. The 25th will be a very much hands on event and the 26th will be a strategy-level event aimed at drawing senior library and information services staff into the discussion.

Tabbloid #5: 22 Oct 2010

Open publication - Free publishing - More lmsmash

This weeks round up of news from the JISC LMS blogosphere includes a couple of 'final project blogposts':
#ENCLAVE: http://enclave.lib.ed.ac.uk/?p=129
#AQUABROWSERUX: http://lorrainepaterson.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/aquabrowserux-final-project-post/

There's also a trio of thoughtful and thorough posts from the #COVPRIMO project sharing the outcomes of their usability testing.

My favourite post this week is the one from the #VUFINDKEVEN blog which shares what they found when they did a google search for their project name: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/vufindkeven/2010/10/21/goggling-at-keven-on-google/ It is heartening to know that their project impact has already spread beyond the borders of the JISC LMS programmes and been picked up by CILIP’s Multimedia Information Technology Group.

Perhaps for the remaining projects it might be worth taking a few minutes to set up Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) so that you can monitor what is being said about your project and join in the conversations as they are happening.

live music, live systems and real live users

While I was standing in muddy, windswept fields in Wales and Yorkshire enjoying live music (and a pint of ale or two) the JISC LMS projects have been zooming forward at a rate of knots. Some of the significant events from the last week or so are:

- 26th August: York St John University carried out usability testing #yocalcat
- 27th August: York St John University went live with their local WorldCat implementation #yocalcat
- 27th August: The #AquaBrowserUX results of live user testing were published
- 30th August: Edinburgh published part two of their guide to creating user personas #AquaBrowserUX #ux2
- 31st August: Northumbria University's Summon instance (NORA Power Search) went live. #summon4hn
- 1st September: There has been a lot going on with the VuFind KEVEN project at Kent University and the new interface goes live on the library website tomorrow https://catalogue.kent.ac.uk/ #vufindkeven

And that's probably not everything! I'll post any other significant updates here as and when I spot them.

The AquaBrowserUX 'contextual inquiry' usability results made for very interesting reading:
- there's evidence to support my pet theory that users have a low awareness of library catalogue search 'brand' (in this case, AquaBrowser).
- the users wanted to start their search with a blank slate and went to unnecessary lengths to achieve this objective.

A blogpost on the #SWWHEP project blog about user feedback on their iFind advanced search has got me thinking about just how difficult it is to make search intuitive and simple as soon as you go beyond the 'one box fits all' Google-style search interface. I thought it might be useful to post links to a few of the other projects' advanced search pages to allow for easy comparing and contrasting:
- #SWWHEP iFind advanced search
- #YOCALCAT advanced search
- #SUMMON4HN Nora advanced search

It will be interesting to share usability tips between the projects and look at what the logfiles reveal about how often users actually use the advanced search feature vs the simple search.

As part of the synthesis role I'm carrying out Dave Flanders has given me a mandate to be slightly leftfield so I'm also going to share a couple of advanced search examples from outside of the #JISCLMS programme:
- International Children's Digital Library advanced search
- The Leeds Library advanced search (using Heritage LMS)