Overhaul on the way for Penn Libraries search interface

The old days of sifting through card catalogues are one step further from the present.

Penn’s library search interface — named for the University’s founder, Ben Franklin — is slated for a major overhaul designed to make finding books and media much more intuitive.

These changes will be made along with improvements to the entire software system on which Penn Libraries operates, said Penn Libraries Director of Public Services Marjorie Hassen.

While Franklin, Penn’s current search tool, ranks search results by relevance, it can be tricky to accurately pinpoint results. According to Hassen, it can take weeks of training and practice to properly use Franklin’s complex interface, which can be a roadblock for students attempting to tackle an in-depth research paper.

“Everyone expects Google,” said Hassen.

The University is in the process of testing a variety of search improvements. Mike Winkler, director of IT for Penn Libraries, said Penn’s video catalog VCat is a good example of “faceted” searching — users can narrow down results by format, decade, genre, composer and more.

Library officials plan to extend this functionality to other media — nearly 18,000 videos have been indexed in VCat, leaving five million books and periodicals to be indexed.

“We want to take advantage of linkages,” said Winkler. “Ideally, you’d have something like a Netflix-type queue, with an interface that takes advantage of what people already know.”

Students and faculty can already request books from other Ivy League universities with the BorrowDirect program, or from Pennsylvania-area libraries with E-Z Borrow. At the cost of a few days’ wait, this expands the number of available volumes from five million to 40 million.

While Franklin returns results ranked by relevancy, some new users have trouble navigating through the results it generates.

“What you put into it is what you get,” said Hassen. “It’s not as simple as Google … it’s clear if you know what you’re looking for but it can be frustrating if you need targeted searching.”

Penn has also been limited design-wise ­— under a paid proprietary system, designers cannot do much to improve the usability or layout of current search systems.

Columbia University’s library search system CLIO, which uses the same software, looks very similar to Penn’s.

With these issues in mind, library officials have been discussing possible upgrades to Franklin and are leaning toward open-source systems, citing low cost and customizability as important selling points for a potential software upgrade.

Balancing scholarly tools with Google-like usability has been, according to Hassen, “a hard nut to crack.”

However, she said, a new search system should be in place within the next 12-18 months.

*This article was updated at 11:58 p.m. on 10/25/2009 to correct the titles of Marjorie Hassen and Mike Winkler.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.