January 22, 2009

My ideal OPAC

In thinking about what I'd wish my local public library OPAC to be should I stumble upon a magic wand and have the power to perform an instant makeover, I've realized that what I want isn't far-fetched or technically impossible, as I've experienced most of these features elsewhere. What really is blocking my vision for a sparkly new catalog from becoming a reality are the constant foes: money and inertia. The catalog of my dreams just might be out there in some form or fashion, but as it isn't *here* yet, I'll go ahead and share my wish list with the hope that somewhere, someday I'll experience something close. Mind you, these aren't solutions, merely wishes, so I have no clue how to go about pulling them together. If I did, I wouldn't' be talking about it, but doing it!
  • drop menu auto-fill for author, title and keyword searches, a la Amazon
  • both a reserve/hold list and a TBR/wish list; I want to be able to track books I know the library has (or can get) within my sparkly new catalog without having to put in a reserve request, as I might not be ready to read it yet; also one-click shift from TBR/wish list to reserve/hold list
  • email or text alerts to renew/return books, movies and music, where I set the default alert time frame
  • user tagging
  • user reviews
  • browser button to both search availability of titles at my library when browsing non-library sites (Amazon, AbeBooks, LibraryThing, etc.), and to add to my TBR/wish list
  • cover art
  • TOC for essay and poetry collections
  • "Find newer edition" link/button
  • "If you like..." suggestions
  • faceted and visual browsing; while I don't particularly find these useful, others do, and although this is my own sparkly new catalog vision, I am willing to think of others!
  • internal profile that links to other social networking profiles (LibraryThing, Goodreads, Facebook, etc.) so I can easily track and share what I read, watch and listen to
  • an internally created collection of items previously checked out, with information (titles, authors, subjects, dates borrowed, call numbers) gleaned from circulation records to which I can add tags and reviews
  • author and subject alerts that tell me when the library orders and receives books, movies and music by my personal favorites; could also tie into "If you like..." suggestions

I'm sure other features will occur to me as I ponder this further, but these are my immediate desires. Anything that comes to mind beyond this will likely be great additional features, but not essential. And last but not least, my final wish is for us to determine a better name for my sparkly new catalog than OPAC or catalog (even though that's what I've been using). While I know what a catalog is in library terms, I sometimes wonder if others don't; or if there is a better descriptive term out there we could appropriate. Maybe not. Maybe, if all my dreams come true, what we call the catalog won't matter so much, as the features' sparkles will be dazzling enough to jazz up the rather tired-sounding name "catalog."

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