ASIN Room Component

The third component of the ASIN project is Rooms, which is intended to provide an environment for the creation of subject-specific collections of information resources.

According to the Sirsi website: Sirsi Rooms is a revolutionary new way to create and present focused, dynamic collections of the best information available. On any subject. From any source. It's not a portal, a search engine, or an OPAC. Sirsi Rooms is easy-to-use technology that works independently of your other systems. It lets you effectively organize high-quality content within contexts that make sense, so that people can find the information they are looking for. It gives you powerful new ways to draw from traditional, digital, and online resources. It lets you focus on your library's users and the user experience.

Rooms Issues

• Rooms provides one way of integrating information resources into a subject-based framework.
• Some of the institutions will be looking at integrating information resources into campus-wide

• We are currently using the "pre-Alpha" version of Rooms, which is based on a Jakarta/Tomcat framework. Latest version - Note: The systems is not always available.
• The current plan for Sirsi is to move the Rooms system to uPortal. The exact plans here are not clear.
• The Rooms Consortial product has been long delayed and institutions are using an early version of the product. It is buggy and not very stable.
• Currently, MUN is doing the most development with Rooms, although UNB is also doing some development.
• A key question as we move ahead with ASIN is: Is the functionality of Rooms in the current version is sufficient or our requirements? Having said that, we do need a better sense of the requirements of the group, which is what we hope to do with the visioning exercise.
• What are the adavntages of the consortial version of a tool like Rooms? What does it do for the members that can't be done with local tools?
• How can we leverage the power of all CAUL members to provide an innovative service for our users?

Recent Developments

• Rooms 2.2 (single site - non consortial version) will be available in April. It includes fully functional integrated OPAC for Unicorn sites via an API and a less functional integrated OPAC for Ex Libris sites via Z39.50. You can see an implementation of Rooms 2.2 at Arcadia University (formerly known as Beaver College) with integrated OPAC at:

  http://www.arcadia.edu/library/default.aspx?id=1135