Please forgive any
cross-postings.
For those libraries interested, the
New Jersey Historical Society just completed a project funded by the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation to plan for the implementation of an online public access
catalog for our library. The
grant enabled Historical Society
staff to determine the best route to take in developing our OPAC by learning
from other historical societies that
have already created their own online public access catalog. The staff at the Virginia, Maryland, and
Western Reserve Historical Societies offered their suggestions and insights into
the process as we traveled to their repositories to witness first hand the
catalogs and learn the history of their implementation. We discussed partnerships with Rutgers
University and The Newark Public Library, exploring the various ways in which
these relationships would enhance our own efforts, and we also saw the
demonstrations of a number of vendors who develop catalog software at the annual
conference of the American Library Association. As a result of our investigations, we
decided to work in partnership with The Newark Public Library, sharing their
online catalog and forging a relationship that we hope will evolve into a
long-term partnership involving programming in Newark's communities as well as
our online collaboration.
Our planning culminated in an
OPAC Selection Report that outlines the steps that we followed in the
decision-making process. We hope
that it might aid other organizations that are deliberating about automating
their own collections information or about their
current OPAC. The report
stands as a wonderful comparative tool between several of the important regional
historical societies in the nation and will be a resource for additional
analysis in the future, as The New Jersey Historical Society not only develops
its online catalog through The Newark Public Library, but also builds upon other
library initiatives.
I send this notice out to offer a
copy of this report to any library who has an interest, and particularly historical society libraries, since
we may share common features.
Although many libraries may have retroconverted their catalogs long ago
but are looking to change their OPAC, this could be helpful as well. However, it will benefit those other
historical societies and special libraries
that have yet to develop their own online catalog. Please e-mail me directly and I would be
happy to furnish a copy of the report.
Thanks
Chad
Leinaweaver
Director for the Library
The New Jersey Historical Society
52 Park Place
Newark, NJ
07102
(973) 596-8500, ext. 240
FAX (973) 596-6957
cleinaweaver@jerseyhistory.org
http://www.jerseyhistory.org