The City of Cockburn Public Library and Information Service is using an online system that can mirror a reader’s experience during a physical visit to the library.
Cockburn is one of the major coastal cities in Western Australia, located just 22 kilometres south of Perth and eight kilometres south of Fremantle. The City’s Library Service comprises three branch libraries – Coolbellup, Spearwood
and Success Libraries – with a collective membership of more than 33,400 people.
During the 2008/2009 financial year, the three libraries had 347,700 visitors, while the website experienced some 118,300 visits.
Implemented in March as the brainchild of librarians Lawley Yukich, Adrian Chester and Linda Seymour, the new library website search function allows library users to see what other members are borrowing by linking to items recently borrowed or returned.
“The aim is to provide online users with a similar experience to that of library users who physically come into the library and browse the recently returned shelves,” Library Service Manager Duncan Furphy said.
Inspiration came after a library conference earlier in the year where Cockburn Libraries staff learnt more about maximising the use of online services from a presentation by Toronto based keynote speaker Beth Jefferson, founder of BiblioCommons – a Toronto based venture that is working with three provincial agencies in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta to launch innovative, web based ‘Social Discovery Systems’ for public libraries.
“Using Civica’s Spydus Library System’s ‘new items’ search function as a model, our staff modified the system in house to use ‘today’ as a search term, querying the last sighted date,” Duncan Furphy said. “This function was then set up to search for different collections staff thought would be popular, which were then placed as links on the library’s website. Essentially, it has created a useful and efficient tool that helps people find what they’re looking for more effectively when they use our online services.”
Duncan Furphy said that although it is difficult to tell what features of the library website are the most popular, compared with the same time last year, there has been a 25 per cent increase in website visits. There has also been interest from other Spydus libraries in Australia that have implemented the search feature on their own websites.
In August, Spydus Library System users throughout Australasia voted the system a winner, scoring Cockburn Libraries a $1,000 gift voucher.
To view the Cockburn Libraries website visit library.cockburn.wa.gov.au
