The Borrow Direct consortium which includes Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University began searching for a new system in 2008, Pawlek said. The new interface was originally planned to launch on Aug. 10, but its release has been delayed to next week in order to allow for the testing of the system to be completed.
The new interface will allow Borrow Direct users to recall and renew books easily and give lending libraries the ability to set varying loan periods. The system will allow patrons to search by relevancy, date and title, as well as provide users with links to related authors and subjects. Users will also be able to refine searches, according to Pawlek.
Previously, patrons could only search by the author or title of a book, which limited Borrow Direct users to "known item" searches, Pawlek said. The new interface will allow users to search by topic, like in the library catalog, which will allow patrons to browse and "discover" resources, she said.
"What we've been trying to do is create a better discovery interface for Borrow Direct," Pawlek said.
In the old system, patrons were only able to check out books for a standard six-week period and were not able to renew items. In the new interface, patrons can renew items for an additional six-week period, according to Pawlek.
The new interface also allows patrons to view the items that they have checked out through Borrow Direct, which will also retain a history of items that patrons have borrowed in the past, she said.
Currently, the library has two programs for borrowing items from other college libraries Borrow Direct and DartDoc. Borrow Direct, which is exclusive to Dartmouth faculty, students and staff, only allows patrons to borrow books. Alumni and guest borrowers cannot use Borrow Direct but can use DartDoc, which also allows patrons to request and borrow materials such as microfilm and journals, Pawlek said.
Since the Borrow Direct libraries were unable to recall lent items in the old system, member libraries were reluctant to allow patrons to renew items. The old system also prevented libraries from lending media items such as videos and CDs, because the default loan period was six weeks.
The new interface makes the lending libraries more "confident" and willing to lend books for longer periods of time, since they will now be able to recall items if necessary, Pawlek said.
"We're trying to streamline the number of places people have to go to look for things," Pawlek said.
According to Pawlek, the new interface was developed by two companies Relais, which developed the "back end" of the system, and IndexData, which created the search interface specifically for Borrow Direct. The interface will, however, be available for purchase and use by other library consortia.
"The software Borrow Direct was based on was outdated and needed to be replaced," Pawlek said.
The library also debuted a new search engine for the College library collection at the end of Spring term called "Summon," which replaced the old system called "Search 360," according to Laura Barrett, library director of education and outreach.
"Summon is a great place to look up a broad spectrum of resources," Barrett said.
"Search 360" organized search results by database while "Summon" lists results across disciplines and provides a "broader scope" of resources, she said.
The library decided to replace "Search 360" because users were "frustrated by the response time and the way the results came back," Barrett said.
The library has also been investigating ways to better integrate library resources into Blackboard, Pawlek said.
Since the beginning of the Summer term, Blackboard has automatically included links to course reserves and research guides on course websites, Barrett said.
The library also introduced "chat reference" and "text reference" in January, which allows patrons to "get real-time help" from libraries while at the library by instant messaging or texting a librarian during regular Baker-Berry reference hours, according to Barrett.
"A lot of commercial websites have the same process [of live chat], so people are used to this process," Barrett said.
The librarians hope to publicize and encourage students to use the new features through education and outreach in the fall, Pawlek said.
