Case Study: Columbus Metropolitan Library
Context and Community Make-Up
Columbus Metropolitan Library has been serving Central Ohio for over 125 years. The original reading room opened in 1873, and since then CML has provided the widest possible range of information and services to the Columbus community. CML has a total volume of approximately 2.5 million items, serving nearly a million residents of the Columbus, Ohio area. With 21 physical locations it is one of the busiest libraries in the United States, circulating over 16 million items last year. 8.2 million visitors came through the doors of these 21 locations and 1.2 million reference questions were submitted. CML jointly operates the Northwest Library in cooperation with Worthington Libraries, and these organizations along with Southwest Public Libraries in Ohio all share resources with CML In 2006, CML was honored by being ranked the third best library in the U.S. by the Hennen American Public Library Index of libraries serving populations over 500,000.
Columbus Metropolitan Library serves a total community of just over 1.7 million people, ranking the area as the 31st largest in the United States. CML’s patrons are enthusiastic about their summer reading program, which is offered to children, teens and even adults. It is one of the largest programs in the state of Ohio. CML offers other specialized services such as Spanish story times, Homework Help Centers, and ESOL classes. To ensure they are remaining fresh, CML even offers gaming stations at all of their locations with Play Station 3 and Wii!
Technology
CML is a superb example of a library system with the ambition and insight to add AquaBrowser as its visual discovery interface, and bundle together a multitude of resources services to make it convenient for its patrons and its staff. Among the integrated functionality enhancing the CML AquaBrowser are:
- ILS Patron Account Integration
- My Discoveries with LibraryThing tags
- Digital Archive (ContentDM)
- Federated Searching (WebFeat Express)
- Kids skin
- Authority File
- Syndetics Indexed Content Enrichment (ICE)
- Table of Contents, Summaries & Annotations, Fiction & Biography Profiles
We’ll take a short walk through each of these features and how they benefit the library, as well as look at the library itself and how patrons use it.
ILS Patron Account Integration
One of the most important aspects of the Columbus Metropolitan implementation is the seamless integration with the patron services from within AquaBrowser. The CML AquaBrowser implementation does this by offering direct patron services from within search results, such as the ability to place holds and to place items into a virtual book bag for placing holds on multiples items simultaneously. The user does not have to leave the AquaBrowser interface and jump to the legacy catalog. Searching can continue directly from any page in the AquaBrowser, or by browsing via links in the word cloud.
My Discoveries with LibraryThing Tags
Columbus Metropolitan has chosen My Discoveries with LibraryThing tags as additional features to enhance AquaBrowser Library. Implementing this will give the patrons and staff the ability to interact with the collection directly. My Discoveries is a new Social Library Experience which allows any user to contribute their own knowledge and opinions on the library’s materials and services through tagging and adding reviews and ratings. A user can create lists of favorite items and make these lists available to other users, or keep them private. Lists made public will be shared with the global community of users at all AquaBrowser My Discoveries libraries worldwide. The tags allow users to search or browse library materials which are fully integrated in any item’s metadata. To get things really going, My Discoveries will be enhanced at CML with 17 million pre-populated tags from LibraryThing, the world’s richest collection of tags. The combination of the user input and unrestricted lists will create a true online community within the library. Adding LibraryThing tags will give CML patrons the most benefit of the robust My Discoveries social experience. My Discoveries with LibraryThing tags will go live at CML soon, giving patrons a real voice in contributing to the library’s collection and enhancing the experience of all My Discovery users globally.
Digital Archive
ContentDM is a digital management tool which will allow CML to manage their digital content such as digitized documents, images, video and audio files. This content will be fully integrated and results available in a single search from within AquaBrowser, making even more use of the library’s holdings, and putting right where it needs to be, directly within the user’s reach.
Federated Searching
CML has chosen to integrate WebFeat Express, the federated search tool. The patrons and staff at CML can perform a single search in AquaBrowser and get federated search results from dozens of databases within the same interface. This integration makes the best use of a library’s federated search subscription because it places all this information right in front of the user. These resources are many times overlooked, or unknown by most library patrons, who don’t know which databases will best match their information needs. Now they’ll know that the library has such rich information resources available to them. This is yet another example of how AquaBrowser can pull together so many resources in one location for any library, benefiting the user through a single search interface.
Kids skin
CML opted for a Kids skin. The Kids Browser skin is a tailor-made AquaBrowser that sits next to the library’s main catalog. This skin will be designed specifically in the same format and colors and fonts as CML’s current Kids section of their site. When a search is performed from this area, the results will be taken directly from the library’s juvenile collection, with the same accuracy and relevance as the main AquaBrowser search.
Authority File
CML has added Authority File. Authority records are fully utilized to show see-also references and see references in both the word cloud and in the search results. The search results are automatically expanded with sees. The alternatives receive lower relevancy ranking so that your original query is what you see first in your results. Authority files are usually indexed by using authority MARC exports, comparable to title records exports. Of course, as with other sources, AquaBrowser can also ingest any XML or structured text-based format.
If you choose to have your authority records loaded into AquaBrowser, see also references are shown as suggestions as well.
Syndetics Indexed Content Enrichment
CML has a complex range of sources, plus the connection to the neighboring catalogs, so they also opted to add Syndetics (Indexed Content Enrichment) ICE. Syndetics ICE is an enhancement to Syndetic Solutions display elements that allows patrons to search valuable Syndetics content right through your library’s online catalog, helping them discover titles that are undetectable through traditional MARC data searches.
Impact of AquaBrowser on CLM
The seamless integration between the CML services and AquaBrowser is quite unique. CML is very pleased with the integration between AquaBrowser and our reserve system. On most library sites, customers notice a drastic change when moving between the different systems. At CML, customers never know that the catalog is actually two entirely different systems working together. Other details, such as the color scheme and top banner match the main site, columbuslibrary.org and customers can also navigate easily to others area of the site. These details greatly impact the continuity of service the library can offer to its patrons in very positive manner.
The single search box and relevancy ranking are also having a very big impact. These two features provide customers with options they are used to on commercial sites. It is these kind of options which will continue to keep all libraries relevant in a search engine-dependent world. Library patrons expect to find the interactivity in their libraries that they would on commercial sites.
CML is thrilled to have a state of the art catalog for CML customers and are looking forward to continual development.