Below is an email posted yesterday by the National Library that asks for feedback from libraries as to how the ‘deep-linking’ is working at their sites. Perhaps staff with an interest, or time to spare when the public service desk is quiet, may like to have a look. One person from the University of Canterbury Library to coordinate any feedback would probably be a good idea. I am on leave until 8th September. Any volunteers?
Good afternoon
The National Library is posting this message on TePuna-L, nzlibs and PUBSIG .
I hope you don’t feel too bombarded, but National Library and TPSAC( Te Puna Strategic Advisory Committee) feel these developments have been long sought and will prove to be very valuable in lifting the profile of libraries and their collections to all New Zealanders. We are also seeking your feedback on the ways you believe your library will/ may utilise this resource.
It is around a fortnight since the launch of the beta version of New Zealand Libraries’ Catalogue (http://nzlc.natlib.govt.nz ), and the National Library has been delighted with the response we have had up and down the country.
Many messages we have received emphasise the importance of visible library collections in the web environment and the ways this has now become possible with a freely available NUC as well as the load of New Zealand library holdings to WorldCat. Searchers are now able to begin their search using Google from home, workplace or within their local library
Enabling deeplinking to all libraries is ‘work in progress’ When the Catalogue (http://nzlc.natlib.govt.nz) went live some of the larger library management systems had already been successfully ‘deep-linked’ from the Catalogue to individual library catalogues. The last week has been spent in getting the links to the largest libraries working better.
The strategy is to prioritise libraries with the largest collections, then work through all libraries that have chosen not to ‘opt out’.
To date, 67% of holdings on the New Zealand Libraries’ Catalogue (and Te Puna NBD) link to a catalogue item at the local level. 21% of holdings will link to a local library website and the remainder link to that library’s entry in the Directory of New Zealand Libraries.
If your library currently operates one of these library systems:
· Voyager
· Millennium
· Unicorn
· Horizon
would you mind having a look at how it works at your site?
If you think it could work better Andrew Prout (Andrew.prout@natlib.govt.nz or 04 474 3152).
Currently Andrew is working on:
· Liberty 3
· Spydus
National Library values working alongside libraries to get the best possible result for libraries and their users.
Another benefit that the New Zealand Libraries Catalogue @ http://nzlc.natlib.govt.nz brings is that local library websites can now link to it without the need for passwords or security of any kind.
We would be interested learning how libraries and their customers will use the new Catalogue. Will you, for instance, provide links to it from your website, as indicated above?
Ruth Miller
Customer Support Consultant
Digital Solutions
National Library of New Zealand
Phone: 04 474 3089
ruth.miller@natlib.govt.nz
The deep-linking itself is working well for our books. However they’re all labelled as being in "University of Canterbury, Central Library (CU)" even if they’re actually in one of the branches. The label should be changed to "University of Canterbury (CU)".
On other issues:
* It amuses me that in Internet Explorer the "Accessibility" link at the bottom returns a "You don’t have permission to access /cgi-bin/ on this server." error message. (In Firefox it does nothing.)
* The timeout is a nuisance; why is it there at all?
* It’d be nice if the Maori interface error message was actually in Maori.
* It’d be *really* nice if they were to consider (how to phrase it) a slightly more up-to-date and elegant interface than Voyager.