I am just about finished converting all of my card catalog records into an online catalog. All I have left are few odd ball books that need fixing or some orginal cataloging (ack) and I am set.

For any new readers out there.... I started working at my library in January and was horrified to see that they were still using a card catalog. It was waaaay past due to convert to an online system. Most of my patrons avoided the card catalog like the plague and instead would ask me directly if we had a book and if it was checked out.

So with limited budget and limited staff (me and a practicum student) we set out to get an online catalog. We looked at various products and selected one. We selected CyberTools for Libraries and we have been pleased ever since with the product and their service.

However, no system is perfect. Here are my thoughts after using the product for 2 months.

Library Staff Side of the Catalog:
The "back office" (library staff application) side of the CyberTools catalog can sometimes be a little clunky to use.

• Display screens are small, when cataloging you can not see the whole record and you can not easily scroll down/up to view the whole record. You have to click the more button at the bottom of the screen to see the rest of the mark record.
• Windows that have drop down menus are frustating because the scroll bar is not very mouse friendly.
• Sometimes it is easy to get stuck in a loop of error messages when you accidently input the wrong information in a box.
• Their use of End, Quit, Close buttons can be confusing to new users who don't know whether they are exiting that particular module like cataloging or if they are accidently exiting the entire system.

The faults that I find with the back office component are annoying and probably are more of a result of the programming platform it was created on. I would love to see it run more intuitively, have a full screen mode, and function more like a web program not a program on the web.

Patron Side of the Catalog:

The patron end of the CyberTools catalog is actually where I find I have the most criticisms. I admit this is a pet peeve of mine, I find that ALL online catalogs have crummy patron ends to their systems. I think as a whole we as librarians don't do a good enough job designing our websites or demanding our online catalogs be patron friendly.

• The online catalog records display exactly like a card catalog. While this concept might have been a cute idea on paper, it does NOT translate well to the web. First, there is no clue to the user that they are looking at a card catalog view of a book record. (Really how many users now have ever used a card catalog...that number is getting smaller.) There is no background image to make it look like the information is on a card, there is just plain text. The call number is on the far left hand side and decends down the card. A few spaces to the right is the author and title information. CyberTools displays this information with no images or visual barriers (besides some white space) to prevent the patron's eye from combining the call number and the author/title information together. Yes they can figure it out, but at first it is confusing to read and it certainly isn't pleasing to they eye.
  
  Example of record for the ICU book: (note purple words were linked in the catalog)
  
  WX Marino, Paul L.
  218 The ICU book / Paul L. Marino ; illustrations by Pual Contino and
  M33395 Graphic World Illustrations Studio. -- 2nd ed. -- Baltimore : Williams
  1997 & Wilkins, c1998.
  xvii, 928 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references and index.
  1. Intensive Care Units 2. Critical Care
  
  Volume/Issue/Year/Copy Library Location Call# Status
  Y=1997/C=1 Krafty's Library Gen.Col. WX 218 M33395 1997 available

• There is no option to turn off the hyperlinks for the main entry. How many librarians have had users click on the main entry for a journal record like JAMA expecting to go straight to JAMA's site? Patrons see a hyperlink and expect to go somewhere when they click on it. They have no concept of authority files and they don't understand why when they click on the hyperlink to JAMA they aren't on JAMA's site. At my previous library we ended up turning off all of the hyperlinks to the main entry, it took a while to do it and it was a pain, but we did it.
  
• Key information is displayed at the BOTTOM of the displayed record. In my opinion this is the worst offense. What is the patron side of the catalog for? The patron!
  For books the patron wants to know:
  1. Where in the library is it? 2. Is it available or checked out. 3. Is there an online version?
  For journals the patron wants to know:
  1. Is it online? 2. What years/issues are at the library? 3. What is the latest issue received?
  
  You might be able to argue the order of these specific three things the patron wants but for the most part these are the three most important things the patron wants to know. So why on earth is that information at the very bottom of the display screen?!
  
  Example of record for JAMA: (note purple words were linked in the catalog)
  
  SHELVED JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association. American
  WITH Medical Association. -- Vol. 173, no. 9 (July 2, 1960)- .
  JOURNALS -- Chicago : American Medical Association, 1960-
  v. : ill., ports.
  Weekly Title from caption. Vols. for 1960-1981 contain annually: Continuing education courses forphysicians, also issued separately as: Continuing education courses forphysicians for the period from ...; for 1982- contain semiannually:Continuing education opportunities for physicians, also issued separately as:Continuing education opportunities for physicians for the period ... Beginning with v. for 1987, Sept.-May issues include a section called: Pulse. Also available on the World Wide Web. Microfilm. v. 203-204 (1968), v. 207 (1969)-216 (1971 June), v. 218, no. 7-13(1971) [Bethesda, Md.] : National Library of Medicine, 1987. 26 microfilm reels: negative ; 35 mm. Continues: Journal of the American Medical Association 1. Medicine 2. Periodicals I. Continuing education courses for physiciansfor the period from ... II. Continuing education opportunities for physiciansfor the period ... III. Pulse. IV. Journal of the American Medical Association
  
  Connect to full text from any hospital computer. JAMA online(1993 - Present)
  
  Latest issue received on 10/13/05:
  Yr: 2005 Vol: 294 Iss: 14 Mon: OCT Day: 12
  Copy 1:
  Hold: 1995- : 273-
  HOLD: 2005 : 293N1-24/294/
  
  So the patron has to look through all of the goblety gook (in the patron's mind) to find the information most important to them. And when they do, the holdings information is not very patron friendly. They come up to me to ask whether we have volume 293 issue 12, I explain to them that 293N1-24 means that we have volume 293, issues 1 through 24. Only then does the light bulb come on.

Customization of the Catalog (Library Branding):

You are very limited on how you can customize the catalog. You are pretty much limited to adding your library logo at the top of the screen, changing the background color of the pages, and providing basic links at the bottom of the search screen. That is it. For librarians who don't have the time or skills to do the HTML to customize their OPAC this should be not that big of deal. For librarians who have the skill and make the time, this could be a disappointment. For me it was a disappointment, I was under the impression after their training class that you could really customize the look of the catalog if you knew HTML. Sadly this is not the case.

Service, MeSH, Price, Serials:

These are the four strongest reasons to get CyberTools for libraries.

• The service is excellent. Not all vendor's help desk people are nice or helpful. Fortunately CyberTools have the most helpful, friendly, and responsive employees I have encountered. On average, if I email a question I get a response usually within that day. In other words I email them in the morning, I usually get a response before the afternoon. The service is AWESOME!
• CyberTools has true MeSH integration including automated MeSH updates to MARC bibliographic records subject heading explosion, definitions, and trees.
• You can not beat the price. It is an ASP hosted system, which means that you do not have to buy and host it on your own server (already saving you a lot of money). They also charge according to the number of library staff licenses. So if you have two employees but really only one will be using the system you only pay for one user.
• The serials component is very flexible and easy to use. Setting it up can be a little tricky and time consuming (depending on the number of journals) but once it is set up processing journals and claiming is quite simple.