Oregon Debuts LibraryFind

By Jay Datema -- Library Journal, 3/15/2007

There's a new kid on the (meta)search block. LibraryFind, an open source project funded by the State Library of Oregon, is currently live at Oregon State University (OSU), Corvallis, but the library has just packaged up a release for anyone to download and install. Jeremy Frumkin, Gray Chair for Innovative Library Services at OSU, said the project's goals were to contribute to the support of scholarly workflow, remove barriers between the library and web information, and establish the digital library as platform.

Terry Reese, OSU catalog librarian and developer of popular application MarcEdit, and developer Dan Chudnov used the following guiding principles: two clicks—one to find, one to get; a goal of getting results in four seconds; and known and adjustable results ranking. Other OSU project members include Tami Herlocker, point person for interface development, and Ryan Ordway, system administrator. Frumkin said, “The Ruby on Rails platform [an open source web framework] provided easy, quick user interface development. It gives a variety of [user interface] possibilities and offers new interfaces for different user groups.”

The application includes collaborations on the OpenURL module from Ross Singer, library applications developer at the Georgia Tech library, and Ed Summers, Library of Congress developer. Journal coverage can be imported from a Serials Solutions export, and more import facilities are planned in upcoming releases. OSU also is working on a contract with OCLC's WorldCat to download data and is looking to build better trust relationships with vendors. “The upside for vendors is they can see how their data is used when developing new services,” Frumkin said.

Future enhancements include an information dashboard and a personal digital library. Developers are also staffing a support chatroom for technical support, help, and development discussion of LibraryFind.