Presentation to the annual conference of ELAG (European Library Automation Group) in Bratislava, April 22, 2009

1. Next Generation Catalogs: What Do Users Think? Conclusions from the beluga Project Anne Christensen State and University Library Hamburg ELAG 2009 – New Tools of the Trade Bratislava, April 22, 2009

2. The next generation catalog… - aka Catalog 2.0, 0PAC 2.0, (social) discovery tool -

3. … allows browsing

4. … is mashed up

5. … features user-generated metadata & content

6. … offers user experience

7. … makes metadata re-usable – for machines and humans

8. What are librarians hoping for?

9. Finally! Libraries stand a chance against Google!

10. Cool! Better use out of our metadata!

11. Wow! The catalog can evolve into one of these funky social networks!

12. Next Generation Catalogs Hall of Fame Make Buy

13. Catalog 2.0 in Hamburg State and University Library Hamburg + 7 other libraries from the Hamburg area November 2007 – October 2010 348.000 € grant from E-Learning Consortium Hamburg

14. Search interface indexed with Solr, normalization format: Dublin Core Google-like simplicity Visualization of catalog content by format

15. Results list Relevance ranking as default Facetted Browsing

16. Full view Similar titles Availability information from ILS Export to other platforms and in different formats Mashups

17. Imported material in course management system Formatted citation beluga-Link Availability information

18. So, what do users think?

19. „ What I really like is that you actually involve people who are going to suffer from the system.“

20. Methods of user-centered design Focus groups Anthropological studies Usability Tests

21. Results from focus groups and usability tests

22. Create lists Share lists „ My lists are pretty intimate!“   „ I don‘t want to do all the work for people.“

23. Mashup with Amazon „ Need to make up my own mind“  „ What really matters: The tables of content“

24. User-generated content „ Would only do this on course website“ 

25.  Opinions of fellow students and professors matter.

26. But: The social stuff happens elsewhere.

27. Library catalogs as aggregators?

28. They don‘t trust us to be like Google. „ Where is the advanced search button?“

29. „ How do I know if I picked the right term“ People have high expections regarding the „search experience“ „ Who defines how the lists are sorted?“

30. Relevance Ranking Spell checking Controlled vocabulary   

31. Faculty and students seek serendipity. „ I love finding stuff I wasn‘t looking for in the first place“

32. Facetted browsing Virtual shelf browsing New titles Circulation statistics    

33. Students want to be given starting points for their subjects. „ Why isn‘t there some sort of pre-selected bibliography?“

34. Library catalogs as knowledge hubs. (Or even dating services)

35. Visualizations provide a better „User Experience“

36. Research from other projects shows similar results:

38. Anyway: Rethinking the catalog is worth the effort.

39. NGC-Projects in Europe