[Web4lib] OPAC hacks

[Robertson, James]

Web4Lib-ers,
 
At the New Jersey Institute of Technology, we've been using ColdFusion to "hack" some interesting things in Endeavor's Voyager.
 
"Shortcut" human-readable, persistent, URL's to specific items (instead of having to know all the cgi blah garbage).  See explanation at http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm <http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm>  and see it in use at http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129 <http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129> 
 
Local (not vendor-subscription) book cover images (you can see at http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129 <http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129> )
 
Added services link to generate the "shortcut" URL for ease of copy-and-paste web-citations (you can see at http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129 <http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129>  -- click on ADDED SERVICES at the bottom of the record)
 
Added services link to link directly to Amazon, RedLightGreen, Google, and local libraries (you can see at http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129 <http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129>   -- click on ADDED SERVICES)
 
Usage statistics.  Live up-to-date usage stats of the book (you can see at http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129 <http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?isbn=1558607129>   -- click on USAGE STATS)
 
I've also (partically) successfully sucked in live, on-the-fly RSS feeds for tables of contents.  Still "tweaking", but you can see at http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?issn=1046-4883 <http://www.library.njit.edu/catalog/shortcut.cfm?issn=1046-4883>  (click on DETAILED RECORD).
 
                         --Jim Robertson, Assistant University Librarian, NJIT library

	-----Original Message-----
	From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
	[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Andrew Darby
	Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 12:01 PM
	To: web4lib at webjunction.org
	Subject: [Web4lib] OPAC hacks
	
	
	I'd also be interested in hearing what sort of "OPAC hacks" people are
	doing, not customizing the interface using the tools provided by the
	vendor, but either correcting something with, say, javascript, or
	extracting the information from the catalog and re-presenting it.
	
	A couple of Voyager fer instances:
	
	A number of libraries have painstakingly corrected issues with the
	default searching, for instance, switching the keyword OR to a keyword
	AND, removing the initial article from users' title search strings so it
	doesn't conk out and provide an unhelpful bit of feedback ("the system
	cannot interpret your statement"), etc. (Getty, UCLA, + more)
	
	Here, i've been working on providing some contextual help when a search
	fails (rather than the default purple "Your search resulted in no
	hits!"), using javascript and the DOM.  (If you're interested, go to
	http://traindb.ithaca.edu/ select "local catalog" and then try a failed
	search (say, asdf) in keyword and then in journal title.  It's just
	proof of concept; the help tips perhaps aren't so helpful, plus it looks
	sort of gross.)
	
	Also here, because the DVD browsing in Voyager is so painful, i made a
	browsable list of DVDs
	(http://www.ithacalibrary.com/collections/dvds.php).  This is based on a
	monthly "report" from Voyager, that is then ported over to a MySQL
	database; the U of Rochester has a much nicer implementation
	(http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=videos), that does
	it automatically each night, I gather.
	
	Then, there is the National Library of Sweden's catalog
	(http://websok.libris.kb.se/websearch/form?lang=eng), which apparently
	runs on Voyager, but some parallel universe Voyager where they care what
	the public interface looks like.  (Presumably, the National Library did
	this themselves.)
	
	So what else is going on out there?
	
	Andrew Darby
	Web Services Librarian
	Ithaca College Library
	http://www.ithaca.edu/library/