Beyond the OPAC 1

Beyond the OPAC

Dottie Barrow

Collection Development and Organization

ITEC 7134 Web - Spring 2008

Georgia Southern University

Dr. Judith Repman

April, 10, 2008

 Beyond the OPAC 2

Beyond the OPAC

Frederica Academy was founded in 1969 and is a coeducational,

nondenominational, independent, college preparatory day school. It includes grades pre-

kindergarten through twelve and is located on a seventeen-acre campus on St. Simons

Island, Georgia. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and

the Southern Association of Independent Schools.

Frederica has a total of sixty-eight employees on staff. There are fifty teachers

(twenty-eight have advanced degrees), four administrators, four teacher aides, eight

support staff, one athletic director and one media specialist. There are four hundred

twenty-five total students in the school. The lower school (PK-5) has one hundred eighty-

two students, middle school (6-8) has one hundred students and upper school (9-12) has

one hundred forty-three students. One hundred percent of Frederica Academy students go

to college. The following services are provided by the media center at Frederica

Academy:

11,256 holdings (books, VHS, and DVD) with records in the catalog

14 periodical subscriptions – not in the catalog

2 daily newspapers – not in the catalog

On-line card catalog - Winnebago Spectrum 5.3

Database – GALILEO for GISA schools

24 station lower school computer lab with the catalog link on the desktop

20 station middle school computer lab with the catalog link on the desktop

20 station upper school computer lab with the catalog link on the desktop
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4 computer stations in the library with the catalog link on the desktop

United Streaming

All computers have access to the Internet and the catalog

The current OPAC at Frederica Academy is Winnebago Spectrum produced by

Sagebrush Software Company. Spectrum was recently bought by Follett Software

Company. Some of the software features and functions for the program include the ability

to search by title, author, keyword or subject (“Spectrum,” 2007). When the students do

not know the title or author, the keyword search seems to be better than the subject

search. The software does have the capability to search the catalog in French and

Spanish, but Frederica Academy has not purchased this add on. It also offers the

capability to search with a visual search for younger students, but this is not something

that Frederica has added either (“Spectrum,” 2007). Presently, the catalog can be

searched from the school only, but does have the capability of allowing patrons to search

the collection by the Internet from anywhere.

Another popular OPAC system is Destiny, made by Follett Software Company.

Some of the functions and features, and student usage of the features of Destiny are that

students can search subscription databases and free electronic resources in a single step

(“Destiny,” 2007). In addition, Destiny provides access to the multilanguage OPAC,

options for types of searches depending on the age of students, options for visual

searches, access to reading program titles with reading levels, directs students to relevant

web sites, and options for school specific subject headings (“Destiny,” 2007).

The big question for a media specialist is, does the OPAC meet the needs of the

users and if it does, how well does it serve the teachers and students? In order to
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determine how well the school OPAC serves the students and faculty, a survey must be

conducted. The patron usage for check out of material can be determined by generating

reports, but determining the amount of the usage of the software to search for and locate

information is something that requires the user to answer a few questions. The survey

was conducted by asking three questions of students who visited the media center over a

one week time period:

Have you used the catalog search features this year to gather information?

If yes, have you used it more or less than three times?

What is the main tool that you prefer to use to find information?

The teachers were emailed these same three questions. The results were that less than

fifty percent of the students had used the catalog to search for material and of the fifty

percent who had used the catalog, only about twenty percent had used it more than three

times. The favorite tool for finding information was Google for almost one hundred

percent of the students and teachers. For the teachers who replied to the email, only about

ten percent use the search features of the catalog at Frederica Academy. One of the

reasons that the OPAC is rarely used is that patrons find it easier to find information

using other tools. The catalog search features only search the print resources housed in

the school library. Some of the conveniences that users get from Google, such as

relevancy ranking and choices if the search terms are misspelled are features that most

people really like. Also, students simply find Google convenient and easy to use.

According to Alexa, a web information company, Google and Yahoo are the two most

popular sites on the web in the United States (“Top sites,” 2008). The next three most

popular sites are Myspace, You Tube and Facebook and these three sites are considered
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to be social networking sites. This is what today’s students use and expect. Each of the

top five Internet based sites in the United States use web 2.0 technologies.

According to the American Association of School Librarians, one of the main

purposes of the media center is to provide access to information and one of the main roles

of the media specialist is to ensure that the proper tools are made available for searching,

gathering and communicating the information (“Roles and responsibilities,” 2008). The

media specialist must take the lead role in mastering and keeping up with the ever

changing trends in technology. Marshall Breeding (2007) explains some of the trends for

OPACs in his article titled “Next-Generation Flavor in Integrated Online Catalogs”.

Although most of the software in his article is being used in public libraries, the features

would be advantageous for today’s students and are being made available to the school

market as the needs are continuing to be made known. Polaris, Evergreen and Koha

automation systems are all mentioned in the article with such features as relevancy

ranking, features for spelling suggestions, RSS feeds for new books, videos, language

selector and advanced search features. The social networking site, LibraryThing, is also

discussed in the article with special attention to the feature of allowing the library to

overlay their own catalog with new features that include recommendations, lists of other

editions and tags (Breeding, 2007). In a blog created by Peter Murray (2007), he

discusses some of the schemes that add functionality to an OPAC. He breaks the schemes

up into four categories which include OPAC enhancements, OPAC wrappers, OPAC

replacements, and ILS (integrated library system) replacements. The OPAC enhancement

involves adding functions to the existing OPAC system, such as adding a visual search to

the catalog for younger users. The OPAC wrapper, on the other hand, takes the
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information in the ILS and hides it behind a new interface. An example of this is Scriblio

which offers faceted browsing, tagging and syndication feeds for the underlying web

OPAC. The OPAC replacements completely replace the web OPAC in place and operate

on records from another source. ILS replacements use an open solution such as Evergreen

or Koha. According to Karen Schneider (2006), in her blog titled “How OPACs Suck”,

adding more features to the integrated library systems is not necessarily what is needed to

help patrons find information. Schneider (2006) says that the OPACs are good for an

inventory system but web 2.0 tools are better for finding and sharing information. The

integrated library systems are continuing to advance and are adding better features and

functions, but that does not mean that the library should wait around for every new

development to happen. Web 2.0 tools are user-centered and are interactive. These tools

encourage the user to share information. This is what our students relate to in today’s

world and there are ways to use Web 2.0 tools right now in the media center.

Some of the new Web 2.0 tools that can be used to promote access and use of the

library collection are wikis, blogs and nings. Wikis are software that allow the user to

create, edit and collaborate information over the Internet (Richardson, 2007). Wikis can

be used by the media center staff, teachers and students. They are great for a quick and

easy way to share current information. One suggested use of a wiki in a school media

center is as pathfinders created by teachers and media specialists. The links to the wikis

can be put on the media center website and made available as part of the collection.

Another use of a wiki is to make available links to relevant websites for class projects or

just links to library resources. One great advantage of using a wiki for pathfinders and

projects is that they can be added to easily as new information becomes available. It is a
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great tool for the media specialist to use to manage documents that are part of the

collection. It is also possible to make the media center homepage a wiki. This makes

editing easy for the media center staff. For the students, wikis are a great way to access

relevant information on a current topic. It is also possible to allow students to edit a wiki

and add the sites that they have found that might be helpful for their classmates. The

editing feature can be password protected and teacher/librarians can require the students

to include their initials to their posts to help with safety.

Where a wiki’s most useful features are for the teacher and librarian to add

relevant links to the collection for the students to access, blogs are great for interacting

with the users. Blogs are an excellent way for students to communicate with one another

and with experts outside of the school. One way that a school media center could use

blogs is by creating a bibliography of blog links on relevant topics. Allowing students to

access and read selected blogs is a way of connecting the students to experts in a variety

of fields. The safety of blogs for students is an issue that is commonly discussed among

teachers and librarians. This topic was discussed recently on a forum on

TeacherLibrrianNing (Richards, 2007). Some of the blog sites discussed were 21classes,

classblogmeister, edublogs, learnerblogs and google’s blogger. Each of the suggested

blog sites offered safety options with password protection and different levels of security.

Being able to screen all comments before they are published is a great feature when

working with students. According to Joyce Valenza (2007), in her blog titled

“Transparency and Constructivism, etc. (Or Five Good Reasons to Blog the Research

Process)”, she explains that a blog is a great way for students to work through the

research process. She even offers a template for students to use. Blogging helps students
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to focus, organize and share with others in the research process. The media center can

offer access to student’s research blogs on a wiki on the media center page. The main

thing that a blog adds to a media center collection is a way for students and teachers to

communicate and share information about information.

One final web 2.0 tool that would promote access and use of the media center

collection is a ning. This is a social networking platform that can be built to suit ones

needs (Bianchini, 2008). Someone with little experience can create a network. In a video

explaining how to create a ning, co-founder Gina Bianchini (2007) goes through a very

simple step by step demonstration of how to build a social network using the ning

platform. This is a tool that is very easy to use. One of the most popular nings for

librarians is Joyce Valenza’s ning titled TeacherLibrarianNing (2008). This ning allows a

platform for forums, photos, videos and discussions. All of these links are on the ning

that she created. Individuals can create their own ning based on what the needs of the

library or school are. It seems that a forum that can be a link on a ning would be

extremely valuable in a school library. For teachers and librarians, forums would be a

great way to share new technologies. This field changes very quickly, and new and

exciting tools and ideas are constantly being experimented with. Teachers could be

encouraged to share their experiences with new technologies on a forum so that their

peers can see what is going on and ask questions on the forum for a better understanding.

The pictures, videos, discussions and forum topics that teachers and librarians share on

the ning all become part of the collection. It could be considered part of the “professional

collection” as teachers share strategies and methods that they are using in the classroom.
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Wikis, blogs and nings would all bring value to the media center collection. These

tools help in the accessing and sharing of information in today’s world and have many

possible uses in a school library. They provide a way for media specialists to manage

documents and keep information relevant and up-to-date for the teachers and students.

They also provide a platform to share in the information gathering and processing stages.

Web 2.0 technologies provide an excellent way to access and share the library collection

resources.
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References

Bianchini, G. (2008). About ning: Company background. Retrieved March 20,

2008, from Ning Web site: http://www.ning.com/about/about-us.html

Bianchini, G. (2007, February 27). [Podcast] Build your own social space with

Ning, version 2. Classic ScobleShow. Retrieved April 5, 2008, from

http://www.podtech.net/scobleshow/technology/1373/build-your-own-social-space-with-

ning-version-2

Breeding, M. (2007). Next-generation flavor in integrated online catalogs.

Library Technology Reports, 43(4), 38-41. Retrieved March 18, 2008, from Professional

Development Collection Database

Destiny. (2007). Retrieved March 17, 2008, from Follett Software Company Web

site: http://www.follettsoftware.com/page/library_manager/

Murray, P.A. (2007, October 15). [Weblog] Raw Technology: Schemes to add

functionality to the web OPAC. Disruptive Library Technology Jester. Retrieved March

26, 2008, from http://dltj.org/article/web-opac-schemes/

Richards, T (2007, November 25). [Weblog] Safe blogs for students.

TeacherLibrarianNing. Retrieved March 26, 2008, from

http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=672799%3ATopic%3A29544

Richardson, W. (2007, January). Online-powered school libraries:Web 2.0

technologies are transforming the school library . District Administration, Retrieved

March 26, 2008, from http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?

articleid=1055
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Roles and responsibilities of the school library media specialist. (2008).

Retrieved April 7, 2008, from American Association of School Librarians Web site:

http://www.ala.org/aasltemplate.cfm?

Section=informationpower&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&Cont

entID=19930

Schneider, K. G. (2006, May 20). [Weblog] How OPACs suck, part3: The big

picture. ALA TechSource . Retrieved March 18, 2008, from

http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/05/how-opacs-suck-part-3-the-big-picture.html

Social networking services. (2007). Library Technology Reports, 43(5), 45-51.

Retrieved March 26, 2008, from Professional Development Collection Database

Spectrum. (2007). Retrieved March 17, 2008, from Follett Software Company

Web site: http://www.follettsoftware.com/call_page/index.cfm?packet=50

Top sites United States. (2008). Retrieved March28, 2008, from Alexa: The Web

Information Company Web site: http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?

cc=US&ts_mode=country〈=none

Valenza, J. (2007, September 8). [Weblog] Transparency and constructivism, etc.:

Or five good reasons to blog the research process). School Library Journal

NeverEndingSearch. Retrieved April 9, 2008, from

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/560014056.html#comments

Valenza, J. (2008). [Ning] TeacherLibrarianNing. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from

http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/
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