WorldCat Navigator & the future of library services on the Web

WorldCat Navigator & the future of library services on the Web

Katie BirchKyle Banerjee

ALA11 July 2009

OverviewOverview

• The current state of library services, particularly resource sharing

• Introduction to WorldCat Navigator

• Results with the Orbis Cascade Alliance

• The future of networked library services

• Q&A

Where are we going?Where are we going?

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

~ Alan KayComputer scientist, known for his early pioneering work on object-oriented programming and graphical user interface design.

YouTube - j r hartley

ChoiceChoice

“Increasingly the mass market

is turning in to a mass of

niches. That mass of niches

has always existed, but as the

cost of reaching it falls – it’s

suddenly becoming a cultural

and economic force to be

reckoned with.... many of

these kinds of products have

always been there, just not

visible or easy to find.”

- Chris Anderson, The Long Tail

Timeline…Timeline…

1980’s 1990’s 2000’s 2010’s• Stand alone

ILS• Dial-up

service• OPAC

• Web enabled OPAC

• Licensed content

• Consortia sysems

• OpenURL resolvers

• Federated search

• Electronic resource management

• Web 2.0/3.0• Cloud

computing• New

paradigm:networked library services

How resource sharing often works todayThe players:

How resource sharing often works todayThe players:

Libraries Users Partners Data

• Academic• Public• School• Single library• Library group• Consortia• State library• National

library• Corprate

library• Global

libraries

• Kids• Young

students• Students• Teachers• Researchers• Parents• Job seekers• Readers• etc., etc.

• ILS vendors• ILL vendors• Publishers• Aggregators• Search

engines• Study sites• Social sites• MashUps• Coders• Bloggers

• Catalog• Content• Local data• Holdings• Policies• Procedures• History• Managemen

t

Print

eContent

DigitalLocal OPAC

Local Library

Group catalog

ILL searchUser

Library Group

GlobalLibraries

Link vendorsPublishersHosts

Book vendors

Search engines

Social sites

Blogs

How resource sharing often works todayThe process:

How resource sharing often works todayThe process:

How library services often work today How library services often work today

Print

eContent

DigitalLocal OPAC

Local Library

Group catalog

ILL searchUser

Library Group

GlobalLibraries

Link vendorsPublishersHosts

Book vendors

Search engines

Social sites

Blogs

THIS IS A MESS

The result…The result…

Libraries

Users Partners

Data

How resource sharing often works todayThe goal:

How resource sharing often works todayThe goal:

What Navigator does…What Navigator does…

Discovery• Seamless search• Real-time availability• Local branding • Group relevancy results

Navigator Request Engine

• Request management based on policies

• Uses real time availability to build smart unlimited lender strings

• Single interface for consortia and ILL requests

Cooperation with ILS vendors and integration with

ILLiad

Libraries

Users Partners

Data

What Navigator does…What Navigator does…

Patron Interface 3-becomes-1

Staff Interface2-becomes-1

Circulation IntegrationThe data working harder

Libraries

Users Partners

Data

Circulation integration detailsCirculation integration details

• Place hold

• NRE Received action – Bib record & patron update

• NRE Shipped action - Check out items

• NRE Returned action - Check in items

Efficiency gains with Navigator Request EngineEfficiency gains with Navigator Request Engine

ILL s

taff

Without NRE205 seconds x

1,481 items per month

= 84.33 hours

Lib

rary

sta

ff

Without NRE105 seconds x

1,481 items per month

= 43.19 hours

With NRE170 seconds x

1,481 items per month

= 69.93 hours

With NRE55 seconds x

1,481 items per month

= 22.63 hours

20.56 hoursper month

14.4 hoursper month

Time savings

Total time savings: 420 hours per yearSource: MNLink

WorldCat Navigator Meeting at ALA Annual 2009

Orbis Cascade Alliance and WorldCat NavigatorKyle BanerjeeDigital Services Program ManagerOrbis Cascade Alliance

• Orbis Cascade Alliance• WorldCat Navigator• Timeline & process• What works, what doesn’t work

(yet)• Final thoughts

Overview

Membership, programs, & strategic agenda

Oregon & WashingtonPrivate & Public, 2-year & 4-year

Colleges, Universities, Community collegesMembers serving 600 – 42,000 students (FTE)

36 Members

7Puget Sound

5Eastern2

Cen

tral

2Southern

20W

illam

ette

Val

ley

Cas

cad

e R

ang

e

Central Oregon Comm. CollegeCentral Washington UniversityChemeketa Community CollegeClark CollegeConcordia UniversityEastern Oregon UniversityEastern Washington UniversityGeorge Fox UniversityLane Community CollegeLewis & Clark CollegeLinfield CollegeMt. Hood Community CollegeOregon State UniversityOregon Health & Science Univ.Oregon Institute of TechnologyOregon State UniversityPacific UniversityPortland Community CollegePortland State UniversityReed CollegeSaint Martin’s CollegeSeattle Pacific UniversitySeattle UniversitySouthern Oregon UniversityThe Evergreen State CollegeUniversity of OregonUniversity of PortlandUniversity of Puget SoundUniversity of WashingtonWalla Walla CollegeWarner Pacific CollegeWashington State UniversityWestern Oregon UniversityWestern Washington UniversityWhitman CollegeWillamette University

Major Programs

• Electronic Resources• 62 libraries in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Hawaii• Databases, ejournals, ebooks, etc.

• Northwest Digital Archives• 31 libraries and archives in Oregon, Washington, Idaho,

Montana, and Alaska• EAD finding aids, union database, digital content

• Summit Resource Sharing System• 36 academic institutions in Oregon and Washington• 9.2 million unique titles, 28.7 million items• WorldCat Navigator 2009 +• INN-Reach 1993-2008• All members use III Integrated Library System

Major Programs

• Conferences & Workshops• ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication • Code4Lib Northwest

• Cooperative Collection Development• YBP agreement• Distributed Print Repository

• Courier Service • 280 libraries served through 80 dropsites in Oregon,

Washington, & Idaho• 400,000 packages per year

• Digital Services• Digital collections, institutional repositories, etc.

Summit Fulfillments: FY03-08

What do we care about?What do we care about?

Service

Training

Satisfaction

How do we get those things?

Global

Regional

Local ILS

• Simplify, streamline, and automate repetitive tasks

• Identify common operations and redundancies

• Work at the highest appropriate level

• A resource sharing platform• Discovery experience based on WorldCat Group

catalog (a multi library version of WorldCat Local)

• Delivery based on Navigator Request Engine (NRE)

WorldCat Navigator

• Consortial borrowing support• More trust and efficiency than ILL

• Shared information: barcodes, paging slips

• Any valid patron anywhere can place unmediated requests

• Load balancing

• Requests based on real time availability

• Interfaces with existing ILS

• Local, consortial and ILL requesting through one form

• Circulation Gateway allows NRE to “talk” to your local ILS when standards based protocols are not supported

• Hosted at OCLC

What makes Navigator special?

WorldCat Local

WorldCat Group record viewWorldCat Group record view

Navigator uses a hybrid modelNavigator uses a hybrid model

Library

Library Library

LibraryLibrary

Library

Library

LibraryLibrary

Library Library

Shared Catalog Union Catalog

Navigator Request EngineNavigator Request Engine

Motivations for the migrationMotivations for the migration

A better patron experience

• More things that patrons need are not physically in the library, so improved discovery is needed

• Patron shouldn’t need to know where something is before searching for it or ordering it. A patron that needs two books should use the same mechanism to request both

• One set of credentials gets you everything

Strategic benefits

• Move towards network level services and reduction of redundant systems and workflows

• Standards based solution essential for long term viability and bringing disparate services together

• Leadership opportunity

• Partnership with OCLC

TimelineTimeline

March 2008

• Board decision to work with OCLC to develop Navigator

• Implementation Team and workgroups formed

October 15

• WorldCat Navigator delivered

November

• Work out bugs, get trainers and staff up to speed

December 1

• Showtime!

What did we spend our time doing?What did we spend our time doing?

Holdings reclamation

• WorldCat Local and Navigator depend on accurate holdings data

Configuration

• In NRE: Request managing locations, shelf and pickup locations, notices, institutional patrons, paging slips, holds, etc

• Hundreds, possibly thousands of parameters

• At local sites (varies with ILS): network connectivity, indexing, reclamation, accounts, holds, paging slips, firewall, load tables, templates

How we spent our time (continued)How we spent our time (continued)

Training/Communication

• Hundreds of staff affected

• Circ/ILL reconfiguration

• Faculty and patrons need to be informed

• Managing the jitters

Developing components

• “Resolver Resolver”

• ILL Resolver

• Batch paging slips

The “Resolver resolver”The “Resolver resolver”

Paging slipPaging slip

Navigator helps everyone play niceNavigator helps everyone play nice

Load balancing ensures all institutions benefit/contribute

• Before automated load balancing, only 11% institutions have received/shipped ratio between 0.9 and 1.1.

• Huge disparities. Worst ratio is 9:1

After using automatic load balancing for two months

• 86% of membership has shipped/received ratio between 0.9 and 1.1

• About 3/5 of libraries have ratio between 0.95 and 1.05

• Worst ratio is 1.1 (11 items received for every 10 lent)

• Expect rates to improve with time

Side effectsSide effects

Varies by institution• Consortial borrowing is down

• ILL is up, particularly for nonreturnables.

• Some institutions report increased use of electronic resources.

• Staff workload manageable at all sites

• Fulfillment rates down. Consortia wide since going live is 82%. Worst institution is 75%.

• Fulfillment times are up

• Relatively few complaints

Navigator at a glanceNavigator at a glance

Works! Needs improvement

Patron experience

• Discovery of Summit & WorldCat materials

• Integrate local, consortial, ILL borrowing

• Redirection of ILL and OpenURL requests

• Local electronic holdings• Edition selection needs to be more

intelligent

Staff experience

• Place holds• Load balancing • Paging• Autocreate temp bibs and items• Barcode tracking• Automatic check out/in• OpenURL in email alerts

• More elegant pick up anywhere and visiting patron functionality

• Renewals• Speed of some screens

Next stepsNext steps

The network ILS• Do we really need to search, download, and catalog the

same record 36 times?

• Should authority control, serials publication patterns, vendor data, etc really be that different at different institutions?

• Network circ allows easy formation of arbitrary groups

Shared catalog• Best level to deliver service may be at consortial rather than

global level

Resource sharing requires compatibility• Standardization at service and protocol level

• Must play well in mixed environments

During periods of rapid changeDuring periods of rapid change

Expect people to go through these stages1. Skepticism and unfavorable comparisons

between old ways and new

2. Finding a groove

3. Learning to leverage strengths of new systems/methods

Make it work, make it fast, make it slick (in that order)

• Don’t fixate on or sweat the small stuff• Keep your eye on the prize

Transforming ideas into realityTransforming ideas into reality

Be practical• No solution can require everyone to move at the

same time• Hard part is connecting the future to the present as

it is

Progress requires upsetting the status quo• Collaborative efforts cause discomfort and local

change• Know the difference between moving incrementally

to accommodate complexity and doing things halfway to appease those who raise concerns

• Evolutionary change need not be slow

WorldCat Navigator Meeting at ALA Midwinter 2009

Orbis Cascade Alliance and WorldCat NavigatorKyle BanerjeeDigital Services Program ManagerOrbis Cascade Alliance

Web 2.0: Data and toolsWeb 2.0: Data and tools

Without the data, the tools are useless; without the software, the data is unmanageable.

~ Tim O’Reilly on Web 2.0.

Source: Wikimedia.org

It is computer power, however, that is bringing libraries to a precedent-shattering socio-technological change... as (users) increasingly seek access to catalogs linked to electronic files of information by using personal computers in home, school and office...

The functions of librarians, as distinct from libraries, will, however, almost certainly enlarge intellectually as well as usefully.

Where we’ve been headed all alongWhere we’ve been headed all along

~ Fred Kilgour, “The Online Catalog Revolution,” 1983

OCLC’s visionOCLC’s vision

OCLC exists to create systemwide efficiencies in the management of libraries and to increase their impact in compelling user environments.

The key to each of these goals in a Web environment is scale and the delivery of the benefits of scale to as many libraries and library users as possible.

Where we’re headed…Where we’re headed…

Patron Interface 3-becomes-1

Staff Interface All request management

through ONE SINGLE UI

Circulation at the network levelThe data working even harder

Libraries

Users Partners

Data

Efficiency gains in the futureEfficiency gains in the future

User Partners

Data

L

L

L

U

WorldCat Local

Content

Resource sharing

for all formats

E-contentLicense

manager

Libraries

WorldCat.org

U

Google

Facebook

Networked library services:Why do it?Networked library services:Why do it?

• Patron satisfaction

• Library visibility on the web

• Staff workflow improvements

• Reduce total cost of ownership

• Future opportunities for cooperation and connection

Libraries

User Partners

Data

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Questions?Questions?

??