Washington, DC -- June 1, 2022. The Folger Shakespeare Library has launched a new online catalog — available at https://catalog.folger.edu/ — to serve scholars, authors, artists, students, teachers, Shakespeare enthusiasts, and others interested in accessing the Folger collection which includes the world's largest Shakespeare collection and one of the world's three largest collections of early English books (1475–1640) and the 6th largest collection of titles from 1641–1700. It is also a resource for librarians referring to its bibliographic data to learn more about how to catalog rare materials. The Folger's new catalog is powered by the TIND Integrated Library System (ILS).
"Our catalogers create high quality descriptive data about our collection, and it is our responsibility to make sure their work and the records they create continue to thrive in modern systems, for the benefit of those who rely on those records to access the collection," noted Greg Prickman, the Folger's Eric Weinmann Librarian and Director of Collections. "TIND gives us the tools to meet our researchers' needs today."
The Folger's new catalog includes 12,492,431 cells of data — 414,962 bibliographic records; 565,163 holdings records; 164,545 authority records; and 30 spreadsheets of acquisitions, patron, and circulation data — migrated from the Folger's original online catalog Hamnet which debuted 25 years ago.
"We selected TIND because we were excited by the technological capabilities of their system. It was the only ILS product on the market that met our needs and would be a worthy successor to our Hamnet online catalog," notes Julie C. Swierczek, associate librarian for collection description and imaging. "TIND has filled a niche in the library systems market, providing standards-compliant functionality that is right-sized for smaller academic and research libraries. We are thrilled not only to work with TIND — who has been receptive to all our ideas and requests, often taking our suggestions and adding them to the development roadmap — but also to be joining the ranks of other TIND libraries so we can work together for the benefit of us all."
TIND started at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. While CERN is most famous for being the home of the Large Hadron Collider, they are also leaders in the field of information organization and exchange. CERN is where Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau invented what would become the World Wide Web. The TIND ILS is built on the open source Invenio framework developed for information management at CERN.
Highlights of the New Catalog
- A single search box that allows basic keyword searching of all information in the records on the one hand, complex Boolean searching of any combination of the catalog's 1,000+ separate data fields on the other, and plenty of guidance for different in-between search tactics.
- From the front page, jump quickly into a specific part of the collection, each with a brief description at the top of the list of records.
- Use facets to quickly narrow search results by name, subject, genre/form, place created, or language.
- Use the "item location" facet to see vault resources only, open stacks resources only, or online resources only. Select both "Vault" and "Online" to see records for Folger vault material that have links to high-resolution digital images in the Folger's digital image database.
- The URL in the address bar is a permanent link to your search result, whether it's a single record or hundreds of records brought up by a complicated search. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed or an email notification when new items matching your search criteria are added to the catalog.
- The "Advanced search" has eleven drop-down fields to choose from and includes an "Added/modified since" option so you can see only the records that have been added or changed since the last time you looked.
- You can log in to create (and share) "baskets" of records, re-use your earlier searches, see your own circulation history for open-stacks material, and more.
- The advanced search supports the use of regular expressions, which allows for pattern matching, rather than searching by words.
The new catalog offers application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow systems to communicate with each other. These APIs will play a critical role as the Folger moves forward allowing for more interconnectedness among our library systems for an easier user experience.
Over the coming months, the Folger will be updating user documentation on Folgerpedia —https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Catalog — and producing other instructional content to assist users in familiarizing themselves with the new catalog. Collections staff are always happy to answer questions via https://www.folger.edu/ask-a-librarian or catalog@folger.edu.
For their work on the project, the Folger thanks the entire Collections team, especially Erin Blake, senior cataloger, who oversaw migration of all the data from Hamnet to the new catalog; Ryder Gaddis, TIND's VP for Implementation Services, and Kenneth Hole, Implementation Specialist and co-founder of TIND, for their painstaking planning and execution of our migration project; and CEO and TIND co-founder Alexander Nietzold, as well as VP of Product Management Andrew French.
About Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library is the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. The Folger welcomes millions of visitors online and in person. We provide unparalleled access to a huge array of resources, from original sources to modern interpretations. With the Folger, you can experience the power of performance, the wonder of exhibitions, and the excitement of path breaking research. We offer the opportunity to see and even work with early modern sources, driving discovery and transforming education for students of all ages.
During our multiyear building renovation, join us online and on the road. Learn more at https://www.folger.edu, and on social media at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Connect with our e-newsletters and blogs at https://www.folger.edu/connect.
About TIND
TIND is an official CERN spin-off providing library management systems, digital preservation- and research data management solutions based on CERN open source software. More info at http://www.tind.io.
