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OPAC Selection Report from the NJHS



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