WEST Phase 2 Systems Development Update

WEST is currently developing additional systems functions to support archiving activities, including a graphical user interface (or “dashboard”) to the existing print journal collections analysis system.

The collections analysis system facilitates regional/group decision-making about “what to archive next?” among a group of libraries. Currently, it receives MARC files of journal holdings from WEST member libraries, normalizes them and performs comparisons to identify deepest backfiles and overlap. The system was developed in WEST phase 1 and used successfully for three consecutive archiving cycles.

The new dashboard to the system will facilitate unmediated use of the WEST collection analysis reporting features used by member libraries and the WEST Collections Analyst. The interface will simplify the submission of Archive Holder/Builder commitments and allow members to easily download their unique collection comparison reports. It will also provide greater flexibility to set regional collection analysis criteria and compare with other print archives.

So far the new dashboard has gone through several internal rounds of testing, and one round of member testing. WEST would like to thank the testers from Arizona State University, California Polytechnic State University, California Institute of Technology, Rice University, the University of California San Diego, the University of California Northern Regional Library Facility, the University of Kansas, and the University of Oklahoma for volunteering their time to make the interface easier to use and more responsive to member needs. WEST would also like to thank the dashboard’s development team from the California Digital Library for their continued hard work and expertise.

The dashboard will be released this summer. To find out more about the interface and its launch, please attend the WEST member meeting at ALA Annual in Las Vegas.