Libraries Get New and Improved CLIO

Searching for library books just got a little easier.

In its first upgrade in two decades, Columbia's online library catalog, known as CLIO, launched a new version last week that features advanced searching techniques, online viewing of fines and due dates, and a "My CLIO" section that allows users to personalize various settings.

The new version of CLIO, which stands for Columbia Libraries Information Online, is most notable for its array of new searching options.

"The new system has tremendous searching capabilities and will allow people to be very specific in what they are searching for," said Curtis Kendrick, the director of access services at Butler Library and a member of the circulation team and integrated system steering committee, which was in charge of selecting the new system.

New features allow users to limit their search by language, library location, year and place of publication, and format, as well as to conduct separate searches by journal title.

The new CLIO system, called Voyager, also offers a "My Library Account" feature, where patrons can view their outstanding fines, a list of the books they have checked out, and the due dates for those books.

And by logging in with their Columbia University network ID, users can renew materials online, place holds and recalls, save search results using the "Bookbag" feature, or customize search default settings using the "My CLIO" feature.

Although the old version of CLIO contained features like online renewal and account access in a special "Request It" section, requests and renewals were not actually occurring in real time. Staff members had to process the online requests manually, a procedure that often caused delays.

The new system, on the other hand, provides for automated, instant results.

"This is going to happen truly when the enter key is hit," said Ree DeDonato, the director of humanities and history libraries. "It will allow the staff to be doing other kinds of things that will help the library move along better, as opposed to doing a lot of this behind-the-scenes processing work."

The reserve section, which operated on a separate system in the former version of CLIO, will now be part of the main system.
Moreover, the launch of Voyager has brought other changes in library policy that are not directly related to the online catalog. Fines have gone down from 50 cents to 25 cents per day for circulation books, with a maximum fine of $7.50, open copies of reserve books will be let out at 6 p.m. rather than 3 p.m., and patrons will now receive e-mail reminders before books are due.

The new Voyager system, which is supported by a company called Endeavor Information Systems, replaces the old system, known as Novice, which had been in place since the early 1980s as a telnet version and had a web version launched four years ago. Voyager has been used for years at universities like Princeton, Yale, Cornell, and Penn.

When Novice's company stopped supporting it, Columbia began investigating new systems in a process that took over two years. The University ultimately chose Voyager over three other online catalog systems, including one known as Ex Libris, which was recently installed at Harvard.

Patricia Renfro, the deputy university librarian, said that Columbia waited longer than other institutions to install a Voyager because the University wanted to be sure that there were no kinks in the new system.

"We wanted to wait until one of the systems had matured to a point where we felt it was very solid and stable," Renfro said.

The transition to the new CLIO system was an involved process.

Last November, roughly 40 library employees formed teams to develop different aspects of the new system. The teams dealt with areas such as circulation, reserves, acquisitions (placing orders and paying bills), training, and design.

Lois Coleman, a reference librarian at Barnard, participated in the training team, which designed Voyager training sessions for the 350 or so library employees, and in another team, which customized CLIO and designed the look of the interface. That team, known as the OPAC team for Online Public Access Catalog, was heavily involved in perfecting CLIO's new searching mechanisms.

"It's figuring out how searching works, why [searching] works the way it does ... and what it is that people need when they're searching a catalog," Coleman said. "[It's] fascinating how people interact with machines and how they think when they're searching."

A series of uploads for Voyager began in April, and the new system finally "went live" on July 7.

"I think we've kept [problems] to a bare minimum," DeDonato said. "So far we're not finding too many things that turned out unexpectedly."

Since the change occurred during summer vacation, fewer students are here to use the system and give their input. "It's hard because our user population is very different in the summer [from what] it is in September," DeDonato said. "But we really wanted to ... have enough time to put [the system] through its paces and catch any particular problems that may be there."

Once students do arrive, however, they will have more influence over the system than they did in the past. "There were certain things that there was absolutely no way that we could program the old mainframe version to do," Renfro said. "Some things that people nowadays want."

In the first week of the new system, patron reviews have been mixed. But library staff foresee more positive response as users become more familiar with the system.

"We're still going through a transition period," said Trevor Dawes, the head of circulation and support services at Butler Library. "There are a few glitches that we are working out, but I think [the response] has been fairly positive."