If you\u2019ve searched for a book from the Library\u2019s website lately, you\u2019ll notice we\u2019re in the process of moving to a new catalog, called WorldCat. It\u2019s sassy, giving you the results you are looking for. It\u2019s sexy, showing you actual book covers. It is easy to use and looks a whole lot like Amazon.com does, allowing you to limit by author, format, year and more down the left hand side.<\/p>\n
Aside from our catalog, which library users do see, what you do not see is the back-end system the Library depends on to run things, usually called an Integrated Library System (ILS). In keeping with the UTC spirit of innovation, we are excited to report that we at Lupton Library are helping to beta test an entirely new sort of library management system, a web-based one that lives \u201cin the cloud\u201d, called Webscale Management Service (WMS).<\/p>\n
Checking in and out items, billing, programming which library users get what privileges, ordering materials, cataloging materials so that you can find them when searching, entering user records, and\u00a0 processing course reserves are just a few things that this system allows the Library to do. As you might imagine, this makes up a large part of the Library\u2019s work, in addition to staffing our service desks, serving as liaisons to academic departments, teaching classes, developing the Library\u2019s collections, and more.<\/p>\n