This page will highlight Voyager catalogues with enhanced features.


Spell checkers

This is a feature to provide hints for alternate spelling if a search in Voyager results in no hits. It is modelled on the way search engines such as Google suggest alternate spellings "Did you mean? .........."

Look at these catalogues to see spellcheckers in action

Tarrant County College library catalogue
University of Waikato library catalogue

Location Maps

This feature provides a link to a map showing where collection items are shelved. In March 2007 State Library of Queensland implemented this feature into the OPAC. The solution used by the library used Location codes in the MARC 852||b tag to identify where collection items were located and to generate a web page with the appropriate map.

Look at these catalogues to see implementations of location maps.

State Library of Queensland library catalogue
Manukau Institute of Technology library catalogue
Lincoln University libary catalogue
Auburn University library catalogue


Session Timeout Counters

The timeout feature in Voyager OPACs is to prevent the accumulation of multiple sessions that are left open if users do not exit the catalogue. If too many sessions are left open performance degrades. The OPAC session will close automatically after a set number of seconds.

Session timeout counters let users know how much time is remaining in a session. The counter restarts if the session becomes active ie: if the user commences any action in the OPAC.

Look at these catalogues to see session timeout counters.

Tarrant County College library catalogue
University of South Australia library catalogue
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaigne library catalogue


Online tutorial

Have a look at the online tutorial (How to use the catalogue, or, how to find stuff) created by the University of Auckland. It has some excellent features that assist students to learn how to use their catalogue. The graphics and language have been tailored for their client base of university students.

University of Auckland Library


Links to reference services

Some academic libraries have included links to their reference services in their catalogue pages. One example is Yale University that has an "Ask a librarian" link in their header. Following this link takes the client to a new window where the reference services provided by the University libraries are detailed. Also worth a look is the University of Pennsylvania which among other features, has a link to their reference services called Ask us/get help

Yale University library catalogue
University of Pennsylvania library catalogue