Library changes online system

The long search for a library research system is finally
over.

After years of proposals and evaluations, the UCLA library has
awarded the contract for its new online information system to
Endeavor Information Systems.

Endeavor will immediately begin to implement its information
system ““ Voyager ““ which will replace ORION2, the
library’s current system.

The switch from ORION2 to Voyager will cost the university an
estimated $2.5 million. Half the expenses have been allocated by
Chancellor Albert Carnesale, with the UCLA Library covering the
remainder.

The Voyager system features an online library catalog that
allows users to track research materials, new acquisitions,
circulation and course reserves.

The new program will also have capabilities ORION2 lacks,
including the ability to search for materials specifically by
library as well as monitor online records of items that are the
process of being acquired.

Terry Ryan, assistant university librarian for information
technology, noted a persistent but intermittent performance problem
with ORION2.

“About once an hour the software would just freeze for a
brief span of 30 to 90 seconds,” Ryan said. “The
company put effort to solve it, but the problem was never
completely corrected. … (Voyager) will be more
consistent.”

Several major academic and research libraries, including
university libraries at Columbia and Princeton, the Getty Research
Institute and the Library of Congress already use the Voyager
program.

The decision to change the library’s information system
came after library technology firm Sersi Corp. acquired the company
that operates ORION2. Sersi announced in December 2001, the time of
the purchase, that it would no longer develop the software that
underlies the current ORION2 system and would cease all maintenance
of the software by the end of 2004.

Upon learning of the impending retirement of its information
system, the university sprang into action to find a suitable
replacement.

By December 2002, three companies had submitted proposals to the
library. The three competing proposals were sampled and evaluated
by students, faculty and staff, who provided feedback after
demonstrations and “test drives.”

“All three [systems] were very viable contenders,”
Ryan said. “We went through a formal, very competitive
process where the university assessed quality measured against
cost.”

Endeavor was selected, Ryan said, because it excelled in the
areas the library deemed most important, such as display and
organization of search results.

Though the ORION2 system remains in operation at UCLA, the
university is taking steps to implement the Voyager program. While
no specific time line is available, the library hopes to launch the
catalog to users by fall 2004.

This is the second new online information system for UCLA in
four years. In 1999, ORION2 replaced ORION1, which had served as
the university’s system since the early ’80s. The
transition between systems was not easy.

“The first year or two were very painful, and certain
issues have persisted to the present,” Ryan said. “But
we have confidence [the implementation of Voyager] will go better.
This is a proven system, unlike ORION2. It is already running
online information systems of our size and complexity.”

Some students said they were satisfied with the existing system
but noted they had no means to compare ORION2 to Voyager.

“I haven’t had any problems. I have been using
ORION2 fairly often for the past year, and I have no
complaints,” Les Tibangin, a third-year sociology student,
said. “But I really can’t compare it will any other
system.”

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