[Sigia-l] OPACs / Endeca in the Library

[J. Trant]

Some thoughts from the developer of the site at NCSU (from the 
web4lib list). Sorry for the cross-posting, but I don't think there's 
much overlap here:

At 1:45 PM -0500 1/12/06, Andrew K. Pace wrote:
>
>Thanks for the plug, Roy.  We're very excited about the new 
>interface, especially the abillity to browse the entire collection. 
>So that folks don't think there's a trick to that, you can get there 
>directly from a tab on the front-end: 
>http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/browse.html
>We plan on adding browsability based on format, language, and other 
>non-searchable dimensions on this page as well.  This just went live 
>this morning and many improvements are already planned for version 2 
>(including FRBRized displays via "record-rollup").  Here's a quick 
>rundown of current features:
>* Complex relevency ranking
>* Spell correction
>* Did you mean.... recommendations
>* Refinements based on subfielded LCSH
>* LC Classification browsing and refinement
>* Sort by most circulated ("Most popular")
>* Links from full record display (currently still SirsiDynix Web2) 
>back to Endeca via "More by this author" and "More titles like this"
>* Refinement breadcrumbs that allow you to trace search and delete 
>unwanted refinements
>
>Hat's off to the lead developer, a brand new librarian, Emily 
>Lynema.  She and the nimble product implementation team put this new 
>catalog together in less than 6 months!  Our OPAC doesn't suck 
>anymore....sigh.
>-Andrew
>
>Roy Tennant wrote:
>
>>  Andrew Pace of the NCSU Libraries, who has said that making minor 
>>changes to library catalog systems is like putting lipstick on a 
>>pig,  has unveiled a revolutionary new interface to their catalog 
>>based on  new capabilities provided by Endeca, Inc. For a news 
>>release on the  new system see 
>><http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/libraries.php? 
>>p=1998&more=1http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/libraries.php? 
>>p=1998&more=1>. To use the catalog yourself, see <http:// 
>>www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/>. If you go to <http://www2.lib.ncsu.edu/ 
>>catalog/> you will see that you don't even need to do a search -- 
>>you  can browse down into the 1.66 million item collection by using 
>>the  Library of Congress Classification system.
>>  Roy


jt
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