In an effort to retire the CVUUF “backend” web page (the members pages) and the various databases maintained there, we decided to explore initially moving the library database to the WordPress frontend.

This is the landing page for exploring the WordPress BookList plugin (WPBookList).  After a transition, this page would likely go away and the “Book Catalog” link could appear on the normal Library page.

The WPBookList is a (largely) free plugin that allows one to maintain a list of books.  Books may be entered manually and also by entering an ISBN or an ASIN number, allowing the plugin to gather data from Amazon.  The ISBN barcode on a book may also be scanned with a companion smartphone app.  (See more about it at: https://codecanyon.net/item/wordpress-book-list/19257066 )

Although the WPBookList plugin has a plethora of fields it maintains for each entry, it does not support “Call Number” or “Subject 1” (2, 3 and 4).  These fields have been added to the CVUUF modified version of the plugin.

The existing 1853 entries in the current backend database have been imported into WPBookList. After the import, the catalog display will not have ISBN’s, images or any other information that is not contained in the current catalog.  Using the iPhone scanning app, several hundred book ISBN’s have been scanned (starting with the lower call numbers).  These are the entries shown in Book Catalog Scanned, note that they do not contain the CVUUF call numbers and subject fields.  The ONLY way that entries are being made to the Book Catalog Scanned library is by scanning or entering with an ISBN or ASIN.

The “Book Catalog” is the CVUUF data merged with the scanned data (manual process).  Consequently many of the entries will not have  ISBN’s, images or any of the other data that might be available from Amazon.

The “Book Catalog Progress” is currently identical to “Book Catalog“, however it has all display options enabled while “Book Catalog” has many display options turned off, simplifying the display when a user clicks on a book image.  These display options are not controllable by a normal user only by the librarian.

Each of these catalogs is a separate library from WPBookList’s point of view.  Three have been implemented here to facilitate transition and contrast the display options.  After migration we would have need for only one catalog.

Finally, maintenance of the catalog is performed on the admin dashboard for the CVUUF website by a user (librarian) with permissions necessary to manage the plugin.