SOPAC is a set of tools that connects an integrated library system (ILS), like Koha, with a Drupal website to provide a social catalog experience for library patrons. It harvests records from the ILS through web services, reindexes them, and provides a new search interface in Drupal with social features like tags, reviews, and ratings. The document discusses the SOPAC connector developed for Koha ILS, issues implementing the ILS Discovery Interfaces standard, and questions around user data and visualization strategies for next generation library catalogs.

1. SOPAC : connecting Drupal and Koha ELAG, April 2009 Nicolas Morin [email_address]

2. BibLibre we provide support for OSS in libraries we develop & provide support for the OSS ILS KOHA (since 2002) we provide support for the OSS CMS DRUPAL (just started) => SOPAC is a set of tools that connects your ILS (Millenium initially) with a Drupal site

3. Small project : objectives providing the SOPAC connector for Koha on Koha : creating the set of WS required to make SOPAC work

4. SOPAC is the work of the ubiquitous John Blyberg. What is the Social OPAC (SOPAC)? http://aadl.org http://www.darienlibrary.org http://thesocialopac.net http://www.blyberg.net/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/trucolorsfly/

5. What does SOPAC try to achieve? #1 perfect graphical integration between the catalog UI and the library's Drupal web site #2 add « social » functionalities to the OPAC: tags reviews ratings rss => SOPAC replaces and enhances your OPAC

6. What it looks like at Darien

7. What it looks like at Darien

8. Patron creates account

9. What it looks like at Darien

10. How does it work? SOPAC harvests the records from the ILS through a connector reindexes them in a separate engine provides a new UI in Drupal for searching & actions (tags, holds...) requires real time connectors for : Some informations such as item availability Some actions such as placing a hold

11. SOPAC Architecture ILS ws ILS connector MySQL LOCUM sphinx SOPAC (php + add. Tables to Drupal's MySQL) Independent Social Repository Drupal UI INSURGE

12. The Koha Connector we used the ILS Discovery Interfaces recommandation as a set of guidelines to develop KOHA WS -> http://diglib.org/architectures/ilsdi/ It provides for : harvesting of records : done through OAI-PMH server

13. The Koha Connector we used the ILS Discovery Interfaces recommandation as a set of guidelines to develop KOHA WS -> http://diglib.org/architectures/ilsdi/ It provides for : real-time search : not used by Sopac

14. The Koha Connector we used the ILS Discovery Interfaces recommandation as a set of guidelines to develop KOHA WS -> http://diglib.org/architectures/ilsdi/ It provides for : delivery (holds, availibility, etc) : done through new API in Koha

15. The Koha Connector we used the ILS Discovery Interfaces recommandation as a set of guidelines to develop KOHA WS -> http://diglib.org/architectures/ilsdi/ It provides for : patron information : done through new API

16. Issues with the connector Locum expects certain things, ILS-DI recommends something else locum uses patron barcode ils-di expects not a barcode, but a user_id -> way around : translate barcode into user_id on the fly : performance issues. -> way forward : sopac uses user_id

17. Issues with ils-di ILS-DI often recommends SIP or NCIP as a way to provide WS. It doesn't work: many of the stuff we want doesn't exist in SIP SIP is not really extendable if you're going to have to do new WS, why bother with SIP at all : you'd rather have a homogenous set of APIs.

18. Issues with ils-di ILS-DI doesn't say much about the expected quality of the response. -> adoption of ILS-DI will probably take time -> compliance will mean different things

19. Issues with SOPAC a lot of stuff is hardcoded : MARC21 in harvesting function (scrape_bib); item types, question to link accounts, locum configuration... patron has 2 accounts : sopac / ils -> cries out for some sort of ldap solution...

20. Issues with SOPAC if you replace your OPAC, you have to have at least the functionalities that your opac provides. For Koha, issues with : patron's account editing (phone, etc.) record level holds zotero (COinS) integration ... -> SOPAC needs time to mature

21. general questions raised Sopac hints at erasing the limit between local data and outside data (Insurge): we need volumes of data for social functionalities maybe we need volumes of data for searching too, even in small libraries (OCLC Grid Services; GBS...) Independent Social Repository INSURGE

22. general questions raised Sopac knows very little about the user : can one do social stuff without informations about who the persons are? Shouldn't a result be relevant to someone? -> we have to know what the students want -> we also have to know who they are : - major in computer science - minor in philosophy - has courses in building A, next to library B on thursdays

23. general questions raised Sopac separates backoffice from UI, but we could go one step further and better separate searching tools and visualization -> every single result is displayed the same, but should not : display #1 when result set <10, display#2 when result > 1.000, etc... display #1 when search limited to DVD, display #2 when search limited to ebooks, etc... => we need proper visualization strategies

24. what we learned we made the sopac connector for Koha : for some libraries, the integration in Drupal will make a lot of sense with SOPAC as is we developed a 1st, tentative implementation of ILS-DI in Koha : ++ NextGen Catalog tools need more work : User data Visualization We have a feeling that they're transition tools...

25. Thank you for you attention Questions? Comments? Nicolas Morin [email_address]