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ALTHOUGH I SEE SOME WELCOME ADVANCES IN THE STATE OF THE ART IN THE REALM OF LIBRARY DISCOVERY INTERFACES, MUCH WORK REMAINS.
Resource discovery tops the charts as the foremost issue within the realm of library automation. As a new year commences, I see a more pressing need to accelerate the pace with which libraries deliver content and services in ways that our users will find compelling, relevant, and convenient. The evolution of the web advances relentlessly, and librarians have to work hard to ensure that our offerings stay reasonably competitive among the wares of the many information providers on the web. In this month's edition of The Systems Librarian, well review the current state of discovery tools for library content and consider some of the challenges that need to be addressed this year.
A Locus of Innovation
It's great to see significant progress in the development of new library interfaces. For the last 3 or 4 years, an incredible amount of creative energy has focused on crafting new tools to help library patrons navigate more easily through library collections that have grown to be more diverse and complex. Both commercial firms and open source initiatives have been busily involved in developing new offerings in this space. Commercial products include Encore from Innovative Interfaces, Primo from Ex Libris, AquaBrowser Library from Medialab Solutions, Visualizer from VTLS, Summon from Serials Solutions, EBSCO Discovery Service, Enterprise from SirsiDynix, and BiblioCommons. Major open source projects include VuFind, initially developed at Villanova University; Blacklight out of the University of Virginia; the extensible Catalog Project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation centered at the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries; and SOPAC, developed by John Blyberg at Darien Public Library in Connecticut. The surge of creative effort represented in these projects goes beyond what I have seen in the automation industry in any previous phase.
Not Merely Next-Gen Catalogs
Initially, these new tools were called nextgeneration library catalogs, but now I prefer to call them discovery interfaces. They aim to provide access to all aspects of library collections, not just those managed in the traditional library catalog, which is limited to the content managed by the integrated library system. It's all about helping users discover library content in...