Palos Verdes Library District (http://www.pvld.org/) working with the development team at
YourLibrarySite.com (a website development initiative offered by CraftySpace CMS, and a Califa vendor) announces the launch of SOPAC (social online catalog)
integrated into a new Drupal version 6 website. This launch is one of the first public library adoptions of SOPAC outside of Darien Library
in CT, where John Blyberg first developed this open source technology.
Commenting on the project, David Campbell, PVLD's Manager Digital Library Services said, "It brings a uniformity between the look of our
website and our catalog. We can finally sign in with usernames and passwords like the real world (instead of library card numbers). SOPAC
gave us faceting and filtered search results... and even though we had ratings and reviews before, this system is a lot better... with an
improved interface design too."
PVLD first began working with YourLibrarySite.com to develop a Drupal version 4.7 website, which launched in 2007. Discussions about the
SOPAC integration began well over a year ago. "We knew when we started that being first was going to take longer. However, we like being an
industry leader. A lot of people, a lot of libraries, are sitting on the fence with regard to technology ... I want to be an example saying
yes, a library can do it, we can innovate and don't have to go with the old solutions," said Campbell. "There was no question about working
with YourLibrarySite on this project since they are the industry leaders as far as SOPAC and Drupal for Libraries is concerned.
Communication from YourLibrarySite was free of tech jargon and understandable."
Custom development for the SOPAC integration included the creation of a flexible search widget that allows the developer to
construct search strings used for searches across the website and PVLD's pre-existing WordPress blogs, as well as catalog searches.
This search widget works for any URL-driven database searches. YourLibrarySite engineered the ability to pull in titles of recent
WordPress blog posts onto the home page using RSS feeds. Drupal iframe functionality was improved to pull Google search results inside
the website interface.
YourLibrarySite developed a number of SOPAC-specific upgrades for the PVLD project, including support for multi-branch holds,
incorporating the ability to select a home branch for any account, which then is the default for all holds - and the ability to choose
non-default branch when placing a hold. An optional display of reader's checkout history was added, allowing users to turn checkout logging
on or off. When it's on, they can view their history. Search speed optimization, which includes multithreaded search requests for quicker
response was developed. This optimization can be fine-tuned to accommodate varying response times from different ILS installations.
Additionally, "Download" links for audio books in the catalog were added.
When asked about advice to other libraries considering major website upgrades, David Campbell offered, "You need to plan,
stay disciplined and use restraint. If you want a perfect site you'll stay in beta forever.
You need to have a clear project plan and a clear vision of how you want things to look in the end. You should stop looking at just
library websites as examples of what to build - we were looking at sites like Amazon and eBay for our inspiration. Libraries have a
tendency to copy other libraries - we should be looking at what is possible, not just what has already been done."
"We will be posting case studies of the PVLD project to our website in the near future, and we welcome interested librarians to contact us
for an in-depth walk-through of SOPAC and Drupal capabilities," said Muennich.
The new PVLD SOPAC can be viewed at www.pvld.org - search the catalog directly using the search
widget in the global website header or perform faceted searches from http://www.pvld.org/catalog
(select "Advanced Search").
For more information on their project, contact David Campbell at the Palos Verdes Library District.
