Campus libraries plan electronic catalog upgrade

A new electronic catalog is coming soon to libraries here and on other UW System campuses – overdue and just in the nick of time.

Last fall the UW System decided to purchase the Voyager program from Endeavor Information Systems of Des Plaines, Ill. Voyager has been sold to 350 other libraries so far, including the Library of Congress.

All System libraries will have installed Voyager by early next year. UW–Madison plans on having it up and running sometime this summer.

“This new integrated library system will position the UW System to support the many electronic services needed by library users in the 21st century,” says Ken Frazier, director of the General Library System (GLS) at UW–Madison.

Campuses are moving to Voyager because:

• The new program is Y2K-compliant, which the current UW–Madison catalog is not.
• The current program is running on software that’s 25 years old – anciently outmoded in technology terms. And the vendor knows it, because it no longer markets the program.
• Unifying UW System campuses with Voyager will enable them to share library resources more easily.

This statewide switch is part of a national movement to new library catalogs. “All major research universities are in the process of moving to new catalogs,” says Nolan Pope, associate director for technology at GLS.

Many of them are switching for the same reasons that drove the UW System decision. Even libraries with homegrown library software, such as the Library of Congress and the National Library of Medicine, are switching to Voyager because it’s more cost-effective than hiring staff to develop and improve their own software.

Voyager has many features not available in the current UW–Madison catalog, requiring only a web browser. (see http://www.library.wisc.edu/Newsystem/faq.htm for details.) With Voyager, you can:

• Access your library record, and renew and recall items on-line.
• Have items from one of the UW–Madison libraries delivered to the library closest to your office (to be started within the first year of use).
• Link to electronic reserves.
• See newly acquired materials immediately upon arrival.

“Voyager will be more intuitive for users, but we also will have on-line help and drop-in classes at several campus libraries,” says Jean Gilbertson, director of Steenbock Library. Gilbertson heads up a group that’s working to ease the transition to Voyager for users. They will be talking to departments about the new catalog this summer and fall.

Faculty, staff and students at UW–Madison were actively involved in the choice of Voyager through the University Library Committee.