Project Plan Post 2 of 7: Wider Benefits to Sector & Achievements for Host Institution

Benefits for the University Sector

Most universities will have complex holdings in their libraries, and library users often find it hard to understand cataloguing systems. So there is a general need for software which can help to find hardcopy materials as well as electronic resources. Several libraries have set up their own locator systems, of varying degrees of sophistication and ease of use: examples include Brunel (which maps to the shelf location) and Cambridge (which maps to the room). Others do not do so; a informal random search of five university libraries picked up only these two having interactive maps at all. The JISC funded HeadLine project found that shelf mark locations were the second most common query at library help desks in 1998. In the absence of more recent data, this seems likely still to be true and so provide a driver for improved discovery tools for books and paper journals which this locator would fulfil.

The tool to be developed by this project should satisfy this need. It should be easy to install and manage, and should, through its simple RESTful interface, be easy to integrate into a range of other tools, including LMS and VLE software.

Benefits for the LSE

The LSE library already has a system in place for showing the location of books found through the library catalogue, originally developed as part of the JISC funded HeadLine project in the late 1990s. However, there are distinct benefits associated with a re-write:

• The code now very old and because of multiple iterations becoming difficult to maintain.
• The locator was designed to work with the LMS OPAC and would need to be revised if linking in directly with VLE or supplying location maps suitable to formats requiring less than a full PC display (widgets within social spaces as well as portable devices).
• It is tightly tied into specific LMS software and will have to be reworked if the system used at the LSE changes.
• It does not work for all items in the catalogue (e.g. books which share the same classmark but are shelved separately.
• The administrative interface is cryptic and very basic: it is maintained by IT staff rather than cataloguers despite the data itself being catalogue related.