VuFind: An Emerging Open Source Discovery Tool

Abstract

Since the early days of catalogues, the structure and interface of library tools used for accessing the resources are changing rapidly and dramatically to fulfil the changing user needs. In recent years, the behaviour of library users has been undergoing drastic changes due to increasingly use of web search engines and ICT based services. This paper describes the expectations of such users who are looking for information. It presents an optimized approach that enables academic libraries to provide its patrons with an up-to-date user experience while capitalizing on the unique advantages offered by libraries. Ways of integrating the new solution with the current library environment including features and functionalities of next generation catalogues are discussed