A regional group of public libraries in Antwerp, Belgium have announced a new hybrid OPAC for their library software.
They have merged WordPress with AquaBrowser to create a web presence with the capabilities they felt were most important for their libraries, notably local searching, faceted browsing, local news and announcements, and a fast, consistent design across all elements of the site and catalog.
This isn’t the first time WordPress has been used as an OPAC front end. The Scriblio project has been around for several years. Other projects that provide catalogs similar to AquaBrowser are The Social OPAC (SOPAC) and VuFind.
There is no mention of what ILS software is running in the background, but the hybridization of these two capable and solid OPAC enhancers is a positive step. I suspect that we will be seeing an increasing number of front-end designs in the future, especially if developers increase the usability for both the patron and the libraries by combining the strengths from multiple projects.
found on Open Source Living, via Nicole Engard
