IOLUG Spring Meeting | May 3, 2013 Indianapolis IN Courtney Greene, Indiana University Libraries

1. Courtney Greene
IU Bloomington Libraries
IOLUG Spring Program | May 3, 2013
One Discovery Layer, Eight Front Doors
Implementing Blacklight @ IU

2. A few words about Indiana University
Eight campuses
IUCAT – shared statewide online catalog
SirsiDynix Symphony ILS
System-wide request delivery
Diversity of collections (monographs, e-
resources, loads of different media)
Statewide participation leads to a complex
data environment:
- Who shares records? What records?
How?
- Cataloging services provided to ―extra-
systems‖ libraries
- Vendor records
- Every format, language, call number
scheme you can think of (well, maybe not
every one)

3. A few words about Indiana University
Eight campuses
IUCAT – shared statewide online catalog
SirsiDynix Symphony ILS
System-wide request delivery
Diversity of collections (monographs, e-
resources, loads of different media)
Statewide participation leads to a complex
data environment:
- Who shares records? What records?
How?
- Cataloging services provided to ―extra-
systems‖ libraries
- Vendor records
- Every format, language, call number
scheme you can think of (well, maybe not
every one)
IPFW

4. Shared public interface
One-size-fits-all public interface has its costs
How to best serve all campuses and enable flexibility?

5. Discovery Layer Selection
• Review took place in early 2011, candidate
applications were Blacklight & VuFind
• Either system judged able to fulfill baseline
requirements
• Report & recommendations available at:
http://hdl.handle.net/2022/13621

6. Highlights on selection
• Reasons for choosing Blacklight
• Exceptional flexibility
• Development community
Other general requirements included
• Integrate non‐MARC metadata from local collections
• Integrate with technologies enabling single sign on for login to IUCAT services (My Account,
tagging, lists, etc) & off‐campus access to online resources.
• Permalinks for records & searches
• Generate properly formatted citations for major styles (Chicago, APA, MLA).
• Single search box on screen (with access to advanced search) that performs a keyword search
using an index defined by librarians.

11. Implementation
• Work began in Summer 2011
• public beta release in November 2012
• transition to Blacklight interface as primary entry
point this weekend (May 5)
• A few details
• Ruby v PHP
• Data: Indexing, refreshing, displaying
• Browse Call Number
• Campus views

12. Implementation: campus views

13. Implementation: campus views

14. Implementation: campus views

15. Implementation: browse call number
(Stanford gem)

16. Implementation: browse call number
(Stanford gem)

17. Implementation: browse call number
(Stanford gem)

18. Implementation: tricky bits
• Authentication & account management
• My Account services
• Off-campus authentication
• Single sign-on (sort of)
• Data
• The infamous secret bunker of globes
• Going from more to less structured search
• 8 million bibliographic records
• Statewide scope

19. Looking forward
• Lists
• Enhanced views / additional customization by
campus or format
• Transition to Kuali OLE
• and what to do about BROWSE
(the final frontier …)

20. Additional reading on the project
• Greene, Courtney and Kate Banet Moore. 2013. ―One Search to Rule Them All:
Mapping the Literature on User Experience and Discovery.‖ Poster session presented
at Association of College and Research Libraries National Conference, April 12,
Indianapolis, IN. http://bit.ly/1search
• Moore, Kate B., and Courtney Greene. 2012a. ―The Search for a New OPAC:
Selecting an Open Source Discovery Layer.‖ Serials Review 38 (1) (March): 24–30.
• ———. 2012b. ―Choosing Discovery: A Literature Review on the Selection and
Evaluation of Discovery Layers.‖ Journal of Web Librarianship 6 (3) (August): 145–
163.
• Greene, Courtney, Barbara Gushrowski, Randall Lent, Chris Evin Long, Mary Beth
Minick, Kate Banet Moore, Gwendolyn Pershing, Mary Pagliero Popp, and Susan
Skekloff. 2011. ―IU Libraries Discovery Layer Task Force Summary Report and
Recommendation‖. Indiana University Libraries. http://hdl.handle.net/2022/13621.

21. Questions? 

22. Thank you!
Check it out on Monday (…or Tuesday) at http://iucat.iu.edu
These slides available at http://bit.ly/iolug-iu
Courtney Greene
crgreene at indiana dot edu
find me on twitter @xocg