Production-Level HathiTrust Catalog Underway

Plans are currently underway for OCLC to create a tailored HathiTrust interface using WorldCat Local (WCL), with initial version delivery in the 1Q 2010.  On April 14^th, the HathiTrust and OCLC team members met in Chicago to discuss expectations and requirements for the initial implementation.  In preparation for this meeting, the HathiTrust team drafted a vision statement that outlined priorities for the initial implementation of the HathiTrust WCL catalog. The first priority is to provide effective bibliographic access for HathiTrust holdings, but considerations should be given to future capabilities specific to an all-digital collection. For example, a future iteration of the HathiTrust WCL might include a book-viewer and full-text search.

Although both the HathiTrust and OCLC teams agreed that the initial implementation will be built on a  more or less standard WCL, there are some significant functionality and design challenges posited by an all-digital collection.  The meeting focused on identifying the gaps between a standard WCL and the one that HathiTrust will require. The HathiTrust team also demonstrated the HathiTrust beta catalog (http://catalog.hathitrust.org/ [1]) to illustrate some points about interface and record display. OCLC was open to discussing future developments, and expressed a desire to learn about the needs of an all-digital library catalog through working with HathiTrust. Some challenges that came to the forefront were:

• Achieving clarity and accuracy in the linkages between the print copy and digital copy
• Local Holdings Records -- currently in WCL, there is no concept of volume or issue level records, which is needed to  provide specific access to multi-part digital works
• Clarity in the interface of access and “viewability” levels, which will vary based on copyright restrictions and user privileges
• Integration of the HathiTrust materials within other WCL catalogs

Since the initial meeting in Chicago, we have developed a detailed communication plan for the project and have established a subgroup to focus on metadata specifications. We are also gathering user feedback on the recently released HathiTrust beta catalog. Our next step is to finalize and document overall requirements for the version one implementation.

Current HathiTrust team members include:

• John Wilkin (University of Michigan) -- executive director
• Lee Konrad (University of Wisconsin) -- co-chair
• John Butler (University of Minnesota) -- co-chair
• Julia Lovett (University of Michigan) -- project manager
• Adam Brin (California Digital Library) -- analyst
• Jon Rothman (University of Michigan) -- feeds of data/integration
• Lisa German (Pennsylvania State University) -- metadata
• Kevin Clair (Pennsylvania State University) -- metadata
• Christopher Walker (Pennsylvania State University) -- metadata
  

Current OCLC team members include:

• Bill Carney -- Content Manager and OCLC point person for the project
• Chip Nilges -- Vice President, Business Development and project sponsor
• Matt Goldner -- Executive Director of End User Experience
• Mindy Pozenel -- Director, WorldCat Discovery Services and responsible for WorldCat Local product management
• Phil Norman -- Director, Reference and Resource Sharing Development and responsible for WorldCat Local development
• Mike Teets -- Vice President, Global Product Architecture and project sponsor