Dynamic map display in library web OPAC

Adding more features to the web OPAC or making the Integrated Library Management systems (ILMS) more compatible to external web services has been a tendency in recent years. Wichita State University (WSU) Libraries' Dynamic Map Project enriched the bibliographic information by displaying dynamic map(s) for each individual record in the web OPAC. Dynamic mapping provides a customized map display in an online public access catalog to give library patrons directional information to the shelved items. This article will discuss how the dynamic map project evolved and the pros and cons of using holdings records versus bibliographic records to generate the maps. It will describe the programming logic of the interactive direction maps to handle complex shelving situations. It will also address how to transfer data from the OPAC display to a processing program, and then combine this data with the data from linked tables in MS Access and an ILS database. User feedback and future possible enhancement of dynamic mapping in a library will also be discussed.