Improved HOLLIS Debuts

Starting this week, users will be able to access the Harvard University Library’s more than 9 million records via the new and improved Harvard Online Library Information System (HOLLIS).

“It’s a major update and improvement of the old HOLLIS system that was around for almost 20 years,”said Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba, who directs the University Library.

The new system is based on web technology, which is more compatible with other systems and allows for expanded HOLLIS features, Verba said. A main feature of the new system is a point-and-click based user interface that replaces the old system’s typed commands.

“We have worked with programmers to make it as user-friendly as possible,” said Sarah R. Phillips, a reference librarian in Widener Library.

Users have expanded searching options, such as searching by publisher or place of publication, or searching for materials by library. Users will also be able to view a list of their past searches.

In the new HOLLIS, users will be able to limit searches to a certain type of materials, such as journals or books. Librarians said these changes make searching the system much easier.

“That’s something we’ve been wanting for a long time,” said Clara Read, a reference librarian at Widener Library.

Another new feature is the capability to display foreign language records in the original script. Previously, non-Roman languages were “Romanized”—transliterated in Roman characters.

“Even a native speaker would have difficulty understanding the old system,” said Ma Xiaohe, a librarian at the Harvard-Yenching Library.

In addition to the new search functions, the new HOLLIS will allow users to look up their accounts and see what books they have checked out, when the books are due and whether or not they owe any fines.

HOLLIS is “one of the largest financial systems at Harvard,” tracking fines and billing for the whole library system, said Peter Kosewski, director of publications and communications in the University Library.

The system was put in place after “a long process” of looking at different systems and testing them out, Verba said.

Because the system is both large and decentralized, and its users demand many advanced features, the University Library was “a very difficult customer for a system of this sort,” Verba said.

“We have such high-end users. The faculty and students really want a variety of services,” Verba said.

The University’s decentralized system of 90 separate library locations across multiple departments, schools and faculties makes integration of the catalog system difficult.

“We want to make a library system where the decentralization is invisible to the user,” he said.

Verba said cost of the new system is “in the range of a couple of million,” but added that the cost “is difficult to calculate” and “for something of this sort it is not very high.”

In addition, new technology allows HOLLIS to be more easily updated than the previous system, which was “not malleable,” according to Verba.

“This is a much more modular system,” Verba said. “We assume you can take parts out and plug some others in.”

This change comes at a time of year when the Harvard libraries have the least use, so if any problems arise in the transition, the impact will be minimal, Verba said.

So far, the transition has been “incredibly smooth,” Verba said. Comments from professors and students alike have all been positive.

“Bugs here and there are inevitable in a new system,” he said. But so far no problems have been reported in the new HOLLIS.

—Staff writer Stephanie M. Skier can be reached at skier@fas.harvard.edu.