What is VuFind?

VuFind is an alternative interface to I-Share catalogs, offering users what may be a better way to search and discover library resources. In the fall of 2007, CARLI staff began experimenting with VuFind as an optional, accessible alternative to WebVoyage for interested I‑Share libraries. VuFind searches data from the Voyager database, the same data that the classic WebVoyage interface searches. In VuFind, just as in WebVoyage, users may check item availability and place requests.

Features of VuFind include:

A single simple search box
Facets to refine search by subject, title, topic, language, format, and more
The ability to request and to renew items from any I-Share library
Focus on home library catalog or expand to search the I-Share union catalog
Up-to-the-minute item status and location information
User-created username and password, for easier access to MyAccount information
Links to electronic full text when available
One-click links to reviews for some titles
One-click links to book previews in Google Book Search for some titles

VuFind was developed initially at Villanova University for use in libraries. CARLI has adapted VuFind so that it will serve the unique needs of the consortial community, and serve libraries of all sizes within the CARLI I‑Share community.

Where is VuFind?

VuFind for all I-Share libraries: http://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/all/vf/
VuFind for a particular I-Share library: http://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/vf-xxx , where xxx is that library's three-letter code. See the CARLI URL Builder for details about linking to I-Share in VuFind as well as to I-Share "Classic" in WebVoyage.
A mobile-friendly version of VuFind for local library catalogs is available at http://m.carli.illinois.edu .

What's new with VuFind?

VuFind change history

What are the current VuFind development priorities?

As of November 2011, the following enhancement suggestions have been identified as highest priority for investigation and possible implementation:

Add personal name subjects (from the bib 600 $a) to the list of topic facets that display on the Results page.
Facilitate "renew all" requests.
Add data elements to email output from VuFind.
Upgrade solr and improve handling of diacritics on non-Roman characters.

Additional VuFind enhancement suggestions are logged in CARLI's VuFind issues list.

Is the classic catalog (WebVoyage) going away?

The software vendor Ex Libris has stated that "classic" WebVoyage will continue to work with Voyager for the foreseeable future, although they will not develop it any further. CARLI supports WebVoyage, in addition to VuFind, for access to I-Share libraries' local catalogs. Most individual I-Share libraries have chosen to designate VuFind as their primary local OPAC interface, but even these retain access to WebVoyage for the sake of certain kinds of searches, such as call number searches, that cannot be replicated in VuFind.

How do I choose between VuFind and WebVoyage for my local OPAC?

VuFind	Classic / WebVoyage
VuFind is well suited for "discovery" & narrowing large search sets.	WebVoyage is better suited for known-item searching.
VuFind has a more modern look-and-feel.	WebVoyage allows more sophisticated, library-savvy searching.
VuFind makes titles searchable if they were in the catalog as of 6:45PM yesterday. The very newest records cannot be searched in VuFind.	WebVoyage makes titles searchable as soon as the library adds them to the catalog. The very newest records can only be searched in WebVoyage.
In VuFind, the user may select the specific copy to request or use the "request first available" feature.	In WebVoyage, the user selects the title to request, then the system selects an available copy at random.
VuFind is more compliant with accessibility standards than classic WebVoyage. Users who rely on screen readers and other adaptive technologies will have an easier time with VuFind than with classic WebVoyage.	"Classic" WebVoyage (version 6) is less compliant with accessibility standards than VuFind; "tomcat" WebVoyage (version 7) is more compliant with accessibility standards than version 6.
VuFind links to Google Book Search for "previews" of books' content.	WebVoyage does not link to Google Book Search.
VuFind displays the user’s library’s SFX button (which might say "Find it," "Get it," "More," etc.) for any title where electronic full text would be available to the user, even if the title is in another library's catalog.	WebVoyage displays the SFX button in individual libraries' catalogs only. The SFX button that displays is for the title's owning library, irrespective of the user's affiliation.

Why are search results different between VuFind and the classic catalog?

VuFind bibliographic data are about one day older than data searched via the classic catalog: VuFind local catalogs are current as of 6:45PM yesterday. The very newest titles (those added today) will not be findable in VuFind today. (OPAC-suppressed bibs that are placed onto a pre-existing course reserve list take one additional day to be displayable in VuFind.)
There is no exact correlation between VuFind indexes and classic catalog indexes, so it's impossible to do "exactly the same search," although in some circumstances you can get the same search result.

What's the deal with VuFind logins?

VuFind Login FAQ

How do I place a request in VuFind?

To request an item via VuFind:

Do a search, identify the title you want to request.
To request it in the VuFind local catalog you may either click on the word "Available" on the Results (hit list) page, or click on the Request tab on the Record (single-title display) page. To request it in the VuFind union catalog, click the "Request This Item" link that appears below the Status information on the Location tab or click the "Request 1st Available" tab on the Record page.
If you have not already logged in to VuFind, you'll be prompted to do so at this point.
Log in with your VuFind username and password. If you do not already have a VuFind username, click on Create New Account. Your VuFind account needs to be "profiled" with your library borrower ID. Once you've set this up, you never have to worry about it again (unless your borrower ID changes). If you've never told VuFind what your library borrower ID is, then go to VuFind's Your Account page and click on the User Account tab at the bottom of the list on the right. Enter your borrower ID, last name and library affiliation.
Select the location at which you would like to pick up the item and submit the request.
In the future, all you'll need to do is sign on with your VuFind username and password. You won't need to remember your borrower ID (unless you've decided to use that as your VuFind username) in order to request materials via VuFind.

Can library staff place UB requests in VuFind on behalf of users?

UB requests must be placed in the public union catalog. The Voyager staff client does not include a function for placing UB requests and there is no staff view of a user's circulation activity across the whole consortium. Staff can serve as a user's proxy in the public catalog if the user shares her logon credentials and grants staff permission to use them.

How can I search VuFind? What is indexed?

Currently, the following fields are indexed:

SOLR field	MARC field	Description	VuFind Search Qualifier
			Keyword	Title	Author	Subject	ISBN/ ISSN
allfields	010-999	All bibliographic fields	✓
author	100a	Author's name	✓		✓
author2	100acdq, 110abcdefgkl, 111acdefgklnpq, 400acd, 410abcdefgkl, 411acdefgkl, 505r, 700acdq, 710abcdefgkl, 711acdefgkl, 800acdq, 810abcdefgkl, 811acdefgkl	Corporate author's name or personal name of "other author"	✓		✓
conf	008 byte 29
confProc	111ac, 711ab, 811ac	Conference name	✓		✓
cont	008 byte 24
contents	505a	Table of contents	✓
contentsAuthor	505r	Author names from the table of contents	✓		✓
contentsTitle	505t	Titles from the table of contents	✓	✓
date1	008 bytes 07-10	Year of publication (used for sorting and limiting)
dateSpan	362a	Dates a serial was published (not necessarily the dates the library owns)	✓
era	650y, 651y, 690y, 691y	Time period described by the work	✓			✓
genre	655a	Genres like "science fiction"	✓			✓
geographic	650z, 651az, 690z, 691az	Geographic subject headings	✓			✓
geographic2	651abvxz	Geographic subject headings	✓			✓
gPub	008 byte 28	Government publication
isbn	020a	International Standard Book Number	✓				✓
issn	022al	International Standard Serial Number	✓				✓
language	008 bytes 35-37
lccn	010a	Library of Congress Control Number	✓
newTitle	785t	Succeeding title for a serial	✓	✓
oldTitle	780t	Former title for a serial	✓	✓
otherStdNbr	024a	Technical report number or other standard number	✓
physical	300b	Physical description (pagination, etc.)	✓
publishDate	260c	Year of publication (used for display)	✓
publisher	260b	Publisher name	✓
series	440a, 830a	Series title	✓	✓
subject	600a, 610a, 630a, 696a	Names as subject headings	✓			✓
subject2	600abcdfgklmnopqrstvx, 610abcdfgklmnoprstvx, 630adfgklmnoprstvx	Names as subject headings	✓			✓
systemNbr	035a	OCLC number or other system control number	✓
title	245ab	Title	✓	✓
title2	130adfklmnoprs, 210ab, 222ab, 240adfklmnoprs, 243adfklmnoprs, 245h, 246abfnp, 247abfnp, 400knptv, 410knptv, 411knptv, 440anpv, 490av, 505t, 700knpt, 710knpt, 711knpt, 730adfklmnoprs, 740anp, 773abst, 776abst, 780abst, 785abst, 800knptv, 810knptv, 811knptv, 830anpv	Uniform title	✓	✓
topic	650ax, 690ax	Topical subject headings	✓			✓
topic2	650abcdvx, 690abvx	Topical subject headings	✓			✓
url	856u	Address of electronic resource	✓

In addition, VuFind allows searching by user-added tags.

What are VuFind "facets"?

Facets are attributes of the retrieved data that can be used to narrow your search results. Unlike limits, which are applied in VuFind before the search is submitted, and which are applied indiscriminately (for instance, limiting to "French language" will return a null set if there don't happen to be any French titles retrieved by the rest of your search criteria), facet options that display on the VuFind Results page, under the heading "Narrow Your Search," are drawn dynamically from the records in the retrieval set (so if none of the titles is in French, "French" will not be an option in the list of language facets). As you select facets to apply they will be listed at the top of the column on the right side of the Results page, under the heading "Results for." Data from the following fields are exposed as facet options on the VuFind Results page:

Facet Label	Solr Field	MARC Fields
Format	format	245h [for "electronic resource" and "microform" values only], RecType+BibLvl
Location	locations	Voyager Location Limit Group names
Author	author	100a
Topic	topic	650ax, 690ax
Subject Area	callnumber-first	050a, 090a [first byte of each, only]
Language	language	008 bytes 35-37
Genre	genre	655a
Era	era	650y ,651y, 690y, 691y
Region	geographic	650z, 651az, 690z, 691az
Title	title	245ab

What can I search for in VuFind? What is included in the database?

VuFind searches bibliographic data extracted from each Voyager database: the same data that are searched by the classic (WebVoyage) catalog for each library. The VuFind union catalog searches data extracted from the Universal Catalog. Bibliographic data in the VuFind local catalogs are current as of 6:45PM yesterday. Bibliographic data in the VuFind union catalog are the unsuppressed records that were in the Voyager Universal Catalog yesterday and in the Voyager local databases as of 6:45PM the day before yesterday. VuFind does not index for searching any data other than I-Share library catalog data and user-added tags. Although book reviews, author notes, etc. are accessible from VuFind, they are not searchable in VuFind. MFHD data such as call numbers are not searchable in VuFind, although MFHD location and Voyager Location Limit Group data are harvested overnight to support location faceting of VuFind search results.

Can the I-Share union catalog show me only those electronic resources to which I have access?

No. In a library's local catalog, users affiliated with that library can usually assume they have access to any electronic resource to which catalog records refer them. In the I-Share union catalog, however, users will encounter links to electronic resources that, due to licensing restrictions, are available only to users in a particular location, or to users who can satisfy a particular library's proxy server with valid credentials.

What are VuFind "favorites"?

The "Favorites" list is comparable to the Bookbag feature that some libraries have enabled in the classic catalog (WebVoyage). Users may add titles to their favorites at any time, as long as they have signed in to their account. Adding a title to a favorites list is not like adding it to a shopping cart: it is not a prerequisite—or indeed any part of the process—for requesting a title or checking it out. The same title may appear on many users' favorites lists.

When you mark an item as a favorite you have the opportunity to add tags. See "What are VuFind 'tags'?" Favorites and tags can be deleted by the user who entered them (or by CARLI staff).

What are VuFind "tags"?

The tag feature allows you to add tags (descriptors or subject headings) of your own choosing to a record. The idea is that it will make it easier for you to find the records again if you want to. Tags are not indexed for searching via the general search input box, but if you pull up a record that has a tag on it you can click on the hyperlinked tag to execute a search for anything else in the database to which someone has assigned the same tag. Note that the database to which the previous sentence refers might be the union catalog or might be the concatenation of all local catalogs: a tag search in one I-Share library's local catalog will retrieve records from any other local library catalog to which a user has happened to attach the same tag.

When you mark an item as a "favorite," you have the opportunity to add tags, but it is not necessary for an item to be a favorite in order for you to add a tag. You must be logged in to assign tags; tags are associated (in the background, not publicly) with the user who entered them.

On the single-title Record page, anyone can see all tags that have been added to a record, and from the Record page anyone can click to execute a search on any of the tags that were added in the process of making a record someone's favorite. On the Favorites page, you see only your own tags for a title.

Due to an internal constraint in VuFind, once the same tag has been attached to approximately 200 records in the same database (that is, to 200 records in the union catalog or to 200 records across all the local catalogs), clicking on a tag in one record will no longer retrieve the other records tagged the same way: it will instead generate the misleading message, "Your search - - did not match any resources."

What if someone adds an inappropriate tag or comment to VuFind?

We do not anticipate a problem with offensive tags or comments. If someone discovers an offensive tag or comment in the database, CARLI staff can remove it.

Why do I sometimes see the cover image and sometimes not?

The cover images that display in VuFind come from Syndetics Solutions. In the VuFind union catalog, cover images will display if they are available from Syndetics Solutions. In VuFind for a particular I-Share library, cover images will display if they are available from Syndetics Solutions and if that library has purchased a subscription to the cover image service.

Who uses VuFind?

VuFind is an alternative catalog interface available to all I-Share libraries. Some I-Share libraries have chosen to make VuFind their primary catalog interface; others still consider the classic (WebVoyage) catalog their primary catalog interface, but offer VuFind as an experimental alternative. After June 1, 2010 all public access to the I-Share union catalog and all Universal Borrowing requests will be done through the VuFind interface. Beyond Illinois, VuFind is in use at a number of academic and research libraries.

What is the longer-term future for VuFind at CARLI?

VuFind has been an experiment for CARLI: in rapid, open source development and in offering alternative catalog interfaces to existing catalog data. CARLI will continue to develop and support VuFind for as long as it makes sense to do so.

Is VuFind the same as the eXtensible Catalog?

No. The eXtensible Catalog project, based at the University of Rochester, is separate. However, CARLI's experience with VuFind will inform CARLI's participation in the eXtensible Catalog project. Many of the challenges we have faced in adapting VuFind to work in a large, resource-sharing consortial environment we will face again with the eXtensible Catalog. The work we have done to optimize the export and reindexing of bibliographic data from Voyager for VuFind each night will be directly applicable to the eXtensible Catalog project, where data will be harvested and reindexed from a variety of sources on a variety of schedules.