In 2012, Andornot worked with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit to upgrade their DB/TextWorks library system from the older Inmagic Library Module kit to the much newer Genie Integrated Library System. 

This year, the Simcoe Muskoka Health Unit merged their MS Access library catalogue into this shared Genie system, providing both health units with a modern, up-to-date system for managing library holdings, serial subscriptions, orders, and more.

Amongst health care agencies in Canada, it is quite common to share library systems and resources – it makes good economic sense, and helps users and patients to more easily find resources with a single search point.

The public and patients may search the combined library holdings through http://ophc.andornot.com, a discovery interface powered by the VuFind open source software. 

VuFind includes features such as:

• Spelling suggestions and corrections. 
• Faceted browsing to allow users to refine searches by subject, date, collection, and other key fields. 
• A mobile interface. 
• Google Book covers for records with ISBNs. 
• Permalinks to records to allow easy bookmarking and social sharing. 
• User accounts to allow users to save searches and records to personal lists.
• RSS feeds for user-created searches.

A custom request form developed by Andornot allows users to direct a request to borrow items to the appropriate health unit.

Data is automatically imported into the VuFind system nightly using the Andornot Data Extraction Utility, so there’s no additional work needed by library staff.

The shared Genie system is hosted by Andornot as part of our managed hosting service. Working with two separate groups on a joint system can be tricky, but in this case the cooperation between the library staff in the two health units allowed us to complete the project in a very tight time frame.

"Thanks very much for all of your hard work on this project. It is very much appreciated by us and will be by our clients." Amy Faulkner, Librarian, SMDHU

"You’ve done an exceptional job and we’re all quite appreciative of your hard work and discipline to get this through in such short time frames." Shant Alajajian, Librarian, TBDHU

Contact us to discuss upgrades to your library system and public search interface.

The Peel Health Region library in Ontario has been using Inmagic DB/TextWorks for a number of years to manage a small, specialized collection of health care resources. 

The library contacted Andornot recently for assistance in updating the public search interface to the catalog. After reviewing the catalog and discussing their needs, Andornot recommended an upgrade to both the DB/TextWorks databases and desktop interface, as well as creating a new web search interface.  

The library’s DB/TextWorks Catalog database was upgraded to the latest one from the Andornot Starter Kit, featuring well-designed forms, query screens, and script buttons for easy navigation.

A new public search interface was built from the web portion of the Andornot Starter Kit, and is available at http://peel.andornot.com, hosted by Andornot in our data centre. This interface is based on the Twitter Bootstrap responsive web framework, allowing the site to reformat itself for the user’s browser, so that it’s as usable on full-size desktop browser as on a tablet or smartphone.

Librarian Diana Robertson was particularly interested in linking to PDFs of reports. PDFs are currently stored in a document management system only available internally. With catalog records already available for many of these, linking to the PDFs and making them available in the web interface gives much greater public access.

A list of popular topics on the home page (constructed with the help of the Andornot Search Cannery Wizard) provide quick access to areas of the collection. 

The site also features icons to indicate material type, and a selection list to allow users to email, save or print items of most interest to them. These features are standard with the Andornot Starter Kit.

Contact us for assistance with upgrading your catalog to more effective desktop and web interfaces.

Earlier this year, the McGill Universities Health Centre Libraries launched a new website with a fresh, modern design. At the time, Andornot updated the library catalogue we host with a matching design.

As is often the case with a new website launch, after 6 months of real-world usage and feedback from users, a modest tune-up is often needed. With changes occurring to the main MUHC Libraries website often, rather than recreate them each time in the hosted catalogue, we took this opportunity to rebrand it with a simpler design, but to use a responsive web framework. With this, the site is as accessible on a smartphone or tablet as on a full-size desktop web browser. 

The library’s book catalogue is available directly at http://muhclibraries.andornot.com/Books/Default.aspx or though the MUCH Libraries website at http://www.muhclibraries.ca  As before, it’s available in both English and French, shows Google Book covers when available, and offers users a selection list to save or email records as they search. The site now also includes up-to-date loan information, pulled directly from the underlying Inmagic Genie system. The entire interface is built from the Andornot Starter Kit.

Contact us to update your search interface to a responsive one, accessible from any device.

The University Health Network (UHN), consisting of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, recently upgraded to Inmagic Genie.

Previously the patient and family library in each location managed its collection with separate DB/TextWorks databases and licenses. Only one database was available for searching through the intranet, with a simple interface.

Andornot merged data from these into a single shared, integrated Inmagic Genie system. Library staff in each location have web-based access to Genie, but continue to manage their own collections. UHN staff can now search across all the collections through the intranet. This merge reduces the effort to support library systems as there is now only a single system to maintain.

In addition to the search interfaces offered by Genie itself, Andornot also developed a separate interface specifically for volunteers in the libraries, to enable them to help patients and families with health resources in the libraries. This web interface is based on the Andornot Starter Kit and is available on computers in the libraries.

Public access to the collections is available as well, at http://www.theprincessmargaret.ca/en/PatientsFamilies/library/opac/Pages/search-pf-library.aspx

This interface is also based on the Andornot Starter Kit, with features such icons to indicate different types of materials, and book covers from Google to add visual appeal. To comply with UHN confidentiality and security policies, the public system runs on a separate server and instance of WebPublisher PRO. Only bibliographic information from the Genie Catalog is copied to the external server, ensuring patient information remains secure. The Andornot Data Extraction Utility and Inmagic Importer are used in this workflow, to move data from one server to the other automatically.

 

Contact us to take advantage of the efficiencies of a single, integrated library system such as Inmagic Genie.

Check out the new McGill Universities Health Centre Libraries website! A fresh new design launched earlier this year.

http://www.muhclibraries.ca and http://www.bibliothequescusm.ca

The image below shows the earlier site on the left and the newer one on the right, with a more modern, clean look (click to enlarge).

Andornot has hosted MUHC Libraries' books and journals catalogues for many years, as part of our managed hosting service. Both catalogues are stored within an Inmagic Genie system, with a search interface built from the Andornot Starter Kit. Google book covers appear for many records, and the interface is available in both English and French.

In the new site template, the option to search the books and journals catalogues is provided on every page in a band across the middle, along with searches for PubMed, the McGill University Library catalogue, and MUHC's e-journal subscriptions.

For this project, Andornot updated the layout and design of the hosted books and journals catalogues to match the new MUHC Libraries website and co-ordinated with MUHC Library staff so both their new site and the updated catalogue launched at the same time.

Contact us for updates to your catalogue or for help with a redesign of your website or search interface.