AnDI–A New Discovery Interface from Andornot

Published Jul 5, 2012

Andornot has been championing discovery interfaces as the next generation of search interface for online collections for the past few years. We firmly believe they provide the best means for connecting users with the ever-growing amount of resources available online. While they have been widely adopted by public and academic libraries, and many other online content providers, they are not yet often used as the search interface for more specialized collections.

We’re pleased to announce the availability of a solution specifically designed for these situations: AnDI, the Andornot Discovery Interface.

AnDI is a web application based on both the Apache Solr search engine and our own extensive experience in developing search interfaces.

It provides the features users expect in a search interface in 2012, including:

relevancy-based search results;
automatic search term stemming and spelling corrections; and
facets to allow refinement of those results.

The intention is to deliver the most useful resources to the user in their initial search, but allow them to quickly narrow down the results further.

Great for Libraries, Archives, Museums and Other Collections

While other discovery interface systems, such as VuFind, are ideal for bibliographic data, AnDI works well with all descriptive formats. AnDI’s search index is based on the Dublin Core metadata standard, to accommodate materials described in many different ways. This includes archival descriptions, museum artifact records, bibliographic records, and more. By mapping fields from different data sources into the Dublin Core schema, almost anything can be made discoverable through AnDI.

AnDI includes permalinks and social bookmarking features to help users act on the results they find. Additional features are available to customize AnDI for specific projects (details are in our AnDI data sheet).

AnDI is a great choice for all organizations wishing to update their online collections to a system that meets their users’ expectations for a search experience.

Data Sources

AnDI can utilize a variety of data sources. This allows clients to retain their familiar legacy systems such as Inmagic DB/TextWorks, MS Access, Excel or other proprietary software for all data entry and other administrative tasks, and yet provide their end users with a sophisticated front end web interface. AnDI can also be tied into SQL Server for a completely web based application for both data entry and searching.

Example Sites

The Canadian Conservation Institute Library Catalogue and Staff Bibliography search interface. This site in particular provides an example of refining a search with facets. It's available in two languages, with an easy toggle between them at any point in a user's search.
The multi-database search within the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network site provides a single search of the separate archival and genealogical DB/TextWorks databases.

More Information

Further technical details and a data sheet with features and system requirement is available here.

Please contact us to discuss how to upgrade your search interface to AnDI, VuFind or a similar solution.