Tēnā koutou,

For the past few months, the Library Systems team, in conjunction with the VuFind working group, have been developing and enhancing our new OPAC, VuFind. VuFind is essentially a replacement for our current OPAC, Horizon Information Portal (HIP), which is reaching its end-of-life phase and is now considered a legacy system.

Whilst our version of VuFind is still under development, it is now at a point where we can begin using and promoting it as UC Library’s OPAC replacement.

https://libcat.canterbury.ac.nz/

The planned public go-live date is the 8th of February, when all links to HIP in our various systems including links in Summon/Multisearch, will be replaced with links to VuFind by ExLibris. All UC staff and students will then be directed to the new catalogue from that point onwards. We will also be working through updating links on the website, in LibGuides and in LEARN.

From this point onwards, up until the go-live date, ALL library staff should now be using VuFind instead of HIP. This is important for load testing and as a transition phase for staff to familiarise themselves with the new OPAC’s functionality.

Please note that any saved lists in HIP will not be migrated to the new OPAC, therefore if you would like to keep your saved lists, we recommend that you keep a copy of your lists or email them to yourselves from HIP.

For the time-being, HIP will still be working and kept running alongside VuFind during the implementation phase. Therefore, if you do come across any major functionality issues in VuFind, HIP can still be used as a backup. Please let the Systems Team know of any problems you encounter. We have a list of known issues and planned enhancements which we will be working through over the coming months.

If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch.

Bronwyn
(on behalf of the Library Systems Team)