Northern Health Library Services Launches VuFind Discovery Interface

Published Mar 24, 2015

In January, we wrote in this blog post about the increasing numbers of Andornot's special library clients who are choosing discovery interfaces for their library catalogues. The latest to adopt this popular style of search engine is the Northern Health Authority Library in Prince George, B.C.

Northern Health Library Services is a long-time Inmagic DB/TextWorks user, and continues to manage their library collection with this software. The search interface used by patients, the public and health authority staff has been upgraded to the open-source VuFind discovery interface, one of Andornot’s recommended systems.

VuFind provides users with an intuitive and productive experience using features such as:

fast, relevancy-based keyword search results;
spelling corrections and did-you-mean suggestions of alternate terms;
links to related resources;
faceted browsing to easily narrow down results; and
tools for saving and sharing searches and records.

The VuFind system is hosted by Andornot at https://nhalibrary.andornot.com

It provides users with a choice of themes, through a drop-down in the top right corner. The default theme is a modern one built with the Twitter Bootstrap responsive web framework, designed for desktop browsers as well as tablets and phones. An older theme is also available for older browsers, such as Internet Explorer 7 and 8, still in use in some agencies.