Had chat with Mark, who looks to have the project ready to go :)

Comments from marking panel: project needs to provide a more detailed risk assessment.

SiteVisit? to Swansea University

Swansea University:

• Students Total 18,445 (Undergraduates 11,730 / Postgraduates 2,145 / Other FE students 4,570) / Staff 2,500
• More of a postgraduate research focused institution that other Welsh Unis(esp. life sciences, engineering)
• Library is a converged service w/ IT and Careers.
• Library staff is split into back office (administrative) and front office service provision.
• Half million bibliographic items from the three partner institutions (1.2 million physical items).
• Partners institutions: Swansea University, Swansea Metropolitan, Carmarthen Trinity College
• Project aim: common integration of all three OPACs to search across so students can borrow books from any of the University libraries.

Project Update

• There will be a beta launch of catalogue in July, in Sept VuFind? will become the primary version of the catalogue.
• iFind Discover is generic search for partners
• iFind Research is for Swansea students/staff
• Each institution is in the process of writing an SLA to declare the provision they will provide to the other institutions in the partnership. This will help assure that partners can be depended upon one another for declared time periods based upon the guarantee they will provide via their public SLA. SLAs will be reviewed and re-declared on a time based period.
• Currently, usability is a reactionary process by which users report bugs (via feedback form/tab on all VuFind? pages) and those bugs are fixed as quickly as possible.
• Project team will look to do smaller (1-3ppl) UX meetings to listen to users and get their feedback on what the future of the system might look like.
• To get users to talk about the system they will employ a method of "two wishes and a star" (user tells them one good thing the system does - a star, and two things they would like to be seen done better - two wishes).
• Project team will continue to engage in online dialogue to be able to feedback and improve system based on feedback form.

ISSUES - Usability of Library Systems

• MH: Organisation need to push forward resource discovery of specialised subject resources.
• MH: Things have continued to change (and will continue to change), OPACs have NOT changed with the times. Libraries have suffered because they have not been able to change with the times and this is why users do not see them as viable solutions in comparison to Amazon and Google.
• PJ: having previously worked at a proprietary vendor (PJ) found it frustrating that when they wanted to change something he couldn't easily just go into the system and change it (which he could do when part of the company). Open source gives him that control and ability to change the system in the NOW to meet the users needs.
• LO: Open Source not only means immediate reaction to the end users needs to fix the system in the NOW, but also provides the larger community by which solutions for those bugs can be solved quickly <- example: bug found, solved with the help of community on email the same day (would have taken months if not years if a request had been made to a vendor system).
• LO: Libraries need to realise the speed by which problems can be solved with open source software, i.e. the community code correction process: problem arises > request some people on the listserv to get involved > share some ideas and post some code for other to look at > get feedback on the code and have it optimised by several peer reviews > incorporate code > test code > problem solved; this entire process often happens on the same day the problem has arisen.
• MH: It is no longer acceptable that there is a year or two year lag when bugs or enhancements are requested, the changes must be reactionary; things must be fixed the same day they are realised.
• LO: The added value of Open Source: investing in staff (as opposed to a system) means they not only work on that system (eqv cost as proprietary system) but they also have added value to utilise skills with other systems (as well as overall value of being part of a team that has a full set of skills that can solve the problems of end users as they arise).
• LO: the web changes dramatically and OPACs are still stuck in the early nineties. People will not use products that look old in comparison to the modern Web e.g. library systems must be as functional and as good looking as play.com

Suggested Actions

• DFF to put LO in contact with devCSI, encourage LO to present ideas at a barcamp (LO would like further training in programmatic patterns, especially with relation to PHP5 (OO), Solaris, XML, etc. LO is self taught dev who welcomes further learning opportunities).
• DFF to introduce (at Programme Meeting) to have VuFind? and OSS lib system people meet together, e.g. Kent, Sussex, Birkbeck, etc.