Florida Electronic Library
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Florida Union Catalog
Commercial database products
Government information
Virtual Reference Services
Digital Collections
Search Engine
Directory: where and how to locate
information
MyLibraryServices.org
• Hosted by SEFLIN
• Underlying Technology: WebFeat
• Provides access to 25 member library
systems in the 5 county Southeast region
of Florida serving 5 million library users
• Combined holdings: 11.6 million volumes
• Project began in 2000
Alleycat
• Hosted by the Tampa Bay Library
Consortium
• Utilizes Z39.50 based technology
• Provides access to 40 library systems in 12
counties serving 3.8 million library users
• Combined Holdings: 8.3 million
• Project began in 1999
Florida Group Catalog
• State-wide pilot hosted by the Division of
Library and Information Services
• Union Catalog based on Florida library
holdings in WorldCat
• 17 participating library systems serving
8.1 million library users
• Combined Holdings: 28 million
• Project began October, 2002
Testing Functionality
• Contracted with the Information use
Management and Policy Institute,
School of Information Studies,
Florida State University
• Purpose: Conduct a study on Union Catalog
Functionality evaluating the three
approaches implemented in Florida
• Report available at http://www.ii.fsu.edu
Methodology
• Focused on selected functions and features to
determine the extent to which the pilot projects
meet certain functional specifications;
• Reviewed the extent to which the pilot projects
meets accessibility criteria the Americans with
Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act; and
• Provided selected assessments regarding the extent
to which the pilot projects accurately search and
retrieve individual library OPACs.
Functionality
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Ability to group—prior to searching, user can delimit
pending results listing, grouping them by item
characteristics such as type or format;
Limiting—user can limit searches by library (e.g. selecting
a specific library or group of libraries, limiting by types of
libraries or locations of libraries, etc.);
Search process options—user can perform basic and
advanced searches; searches can be done by subject,
author, keyword, and title;
Stated location and availability of resources—results
include the name of the lending institution and the
availability, call number, and format of the item retrieved;
Languages—search can be performed in a language or
languages other than English;
Functionality
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Ability to refine searches—user can search results at a
greater level of specificity once results have been retrieved,
thus focusing and reducing the number of items retrieved;
Support/instructions/help tools—instructional rubrics
guide users through the search process;
Save/print functions—users can save or email entire
results listing or select portions of the results list and can
print results in whole or by selection;
Accessibility—interface and functionality comply with
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility
guidelines; and
Equivalence of results—same items are retrieved across
the virtual union catalog portal and native online public
access catalogs (OPACs).
Results: Aggregate Score
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Total
SEFLIN
AlleyCat
OCLC
53%
47%
78%
Other Findings
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Centralized catalogs are efficient
No Single Interface does it all
Web design must be intuitive
Union Catalogs best positioned when
working to support services, not
strictly a reference resource
Questions
• Contact information:
Mark Flynn
State Library of Florida
Email: mflynn@dos.state.fl.us
Phone: (850) 245-6626