VuFind: A NextGen Overlay

VuFind is a highly customizable open source product that allows information repositories of any size or type to tie together and brand multiple services into a single unified interface. For libraries, VuFind can be applied over an ILS, discovery system, or even discrete holdings such as e-books, digital repositories, and other specialized collections. Beyond what might be considered a traditional academic, public, or consortial implementation, commercial, state, and government entities, as well as museums and archives, have also leveraged VuFind’s powerful Apache Solr search platform in order to showcase paintings, objects, sheet music, photographs, historical documents, and other types of graphic records. Since 2008, VuFind has enjoyed global implementation and currently supports 25 languages. The article describes VuFind’s features and functionality, primarily from an academic library standpoint, as well as how it fits into the world of Web Scale Discovery solutions and why it might be a valuable enhancement to apply over any institutional content.