VuFind and its use at ULB

Digital Libraries à la Carte
International Ticer School 2009
Tilburg University
31 July, 2009
VuFind
Benoit PAUWELSUniversité Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Brussels

Agenda
Overview of functionality
Technical overview
VuFind @ ULB

VuFind
VuFind is a library resource portal
designed and developed by Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Library
open source; web based
project leader: Andrew Nagy
In the first place conceived as a new OPAC experience
Export/Import MARC records from ILS into VuFind
ILS specific drivers for holding information and availability
VuFind can be used as a portal solution for all library resources
librarycatalog, article databases, digital library, institutionalrepository & bibliography, and other library collections and resources
http://www.vufind.org

Functionality
Customizable interface: localization and branding
Uses Yahoo User Interface CSS, PHP Smarty templates, XML/XSL, AJAX, Javascript
ILS specific ‘drivers’ for holding information and availability status
Voyager, Aleph, III, SirsiDynix , Koha, Evergreen
Faceted search experience
“More like this” (algorithmically generated suggestions)
Save resource to organized lists
Browse
Internationalization

Functionality
Persistent URLs (bookmarkable searches)
RSS feed per search query
OAI syndication
CiteThis, EmailThis, TextThis
Export record to Endnote, Refworks
Social features: tagging, comments
Enrichment:
book covers: Amazon, Syndetic, Google Books
book item reviews: Amazon, Syndetic
author biography: Wikipedia

Customizable interface: localization and branding
Uses Yahoo User Interface CSS, PHP Smarty templates, XML/XSL, AJAX, Javascript

ILS specific ‘drivers’ for holding information and availability status
Voyager, Aleph, III, SirsiDynix , Koha, Evergreen

Faceted search experience

“More like this” (algorithmically generated suggestions)

Save resource to organized lists

Browse

Internationalization

Social bookmarks

Zotero compatible (COINS)

RSS feed per search query

CiteThis, EmailThis, TextThis

Export record to Endnote, Refworks

Social features: tagging, comments

Enrichment:

book covers: Amazon, Syndetic, Google Books
book item reviews: Amazon, Syndetic

Technical overview
Linux, Solaris, Windows
Uses Apache SOLR, an open source search engine based on Lucene
Apache HTTP Server 2.2 or later
PHP 5.1.0 or later, Smarty templates
XSL, Javascript, CSS, YUI
MySQL 4.1 or later
Java J2SE JDK 1.5 or later
GNU Aspell Library (optional spell checker)

Technical overview
Export MARC records from ILS
Use VuFind import facilty
Store each record in a separate file
Index in Lucene through SOLR web service
Delivered SOLR schema.xml for MARC records
Searching
VuFind communicates with Lucene through SOLR web service
Returns unique identifier for records
Data of records fetched from filesystem (XSL)

VuFind @ ULB
Keep VuFind functionality
Don’t keep:
MARC based
Filesystem
Import utility; rather OAI harvest

Metadata
OAI-PMH
MySQL
Metadata
Harvester
JDBC
Samburu
Lucene
Lucene doc
Indexer
SOLR
VuFind

Metadata exchange format
Compound Object DIDL / MODS (*)
Metadata
OAI-PMH
MySQL
Metadata
DIDL/MODS XML record stored as-is in MySQL field
Harvester
didl2solr.xsl
transform DIDL/MODS XML record intoLucene document, according to specificschema.xml SOLR config file
<originalRecord>
containscompleteDIDL/MODS record
JDBC
Samburu
Lucene
Lucene doc
Indexer
SOLR
solr2brief.xsl
solr2full.xsl
transform <originalRecord>
fieldinto HTML
VuFind
(*) http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~bpauwels/NEEO/WP5/
WP5 Technical guidelines.pdf/

VuFind @ ULB
DI-fusion
Institutional library resources: IR, etheses repo, digithèque, [ catalog, iconothèque]
BICTel
Regional e-theses repository
Unicat
Belgian national virtual catalog