[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Seeking development partners for icon project

[Kathy Lussier]

Hi all,

Rodgers Memorial Library in Hudson, NH has joined us in this development 
partnership to support Multiple Value Fields in Evergreen. Among the 
many benefits from this development project will be more flexibility in 
determining which formats are represented by icons in the catalog (e.g. 
DVD, Large Print, e-books, etc.) This project is important to our users 
to help them more easily identify the format of a given item.

We still need more contributors to make this project happen. If anyone 
is interested in the project, please let me know. I'll be happy to 
forward along the Statement of Work and answer any questions you may have.

Thanks!
Kathy


Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
klussier at masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier

On 9/4/2013 5:11 PM, Kathy Lussier wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> MassLNC has been in discussion with Equinox regarding a development 
> project that would give us more flexibility in how we use format icons 
> in the catalog.
>
> MassLNC's goal is to be able to use different icons to easily 
> distinguish between books and e-books, for example, or between VHS, 
> Blu-ray, and DVD. We also would like the ability to leverage fixed 
> fields for this purpose instead of creating a local field where these 
> formats need to be added every time a title is cataloged.
>
> Equinox is proposing some changes to the underlying infrastructure to 
> accomplish this goal.
>
> Right now, Evergreen uses  Single Value Fields (SVF) to identify item 
> type, item form, videorecording formats, etc. This development would 
> add Multiple Value Fields (MVF) to Evergreen, allowing records with 
> multiple values in repeatable fixed fields to work properly. In 
> addition, the development would create "Record Attribute Groups" that 
> allow you to take an arbitrary set of attributes (SVF/MVF values 
> pulled from a record) and collapse them into a "super value."
>
> I don't want to go into the technical details, mainly out of fear that 
> I'll get something wrong (if I already haven't), but I included the 
> above information to convey the idea that, although our immediate goal 
> is to get more flexibility in determining which formats should be 
> represented by icons, the development project will bring about other 
> benefits as well. As an example, if you have a MARC record with two 
> 007 fields for a DVD/Blu-ray set, you can't currently retrieve that 
> record in both a DVD search and a Blu-ray search. Once we have 
> multiple values, the record can be retrieved with either limiter.
>
> Also, this infrastructure can also be used to support other potential 
> enhancement projects in the future. As an example, if a future 
> development project funded the return of metarecord holds to the 
> catalog, this infrastructure could be used to support different types 
> of formats that users can select for these holds. There could also be 
> benefits seen in the staff client batch record importer. With some 
> configuration, record attributes might be used as matchpoints for 
> repeatable fields (like ISBN). This configuration might lead to some 
> performance improvements in record matching.
>
> MassLNC would like to contribute some funds to this project, but 
> cannot support the entire cost of the project. I'm putting out a call 
> to see if others might be interested in funding this project. If a 
> bunch of us pool our resources together, we may be able to get this 
> infrastructure improvement at a much lower per-partner cost.
>
> If you are interested, please end me an e-mail directly. I'll send 
> along additional technical and financial details to any interested 
> parties.
>
> Thank you!
> Kathy
>
>