Dynamic web pages and the library catalogue

The University of Canterbury Library provides access to many electronic resources through its web site. A resource may be linked from several different pages such as alphabetical lists, an subject portals. To reduce problems with maintenance of these links, the decision was made to move to a "dynamic" model, whereby information about electronic resources would be stored in a database, and web pages would be created from that database. One of the key decisions in any such project is the choice of database. The Library decided that instead of creating a new database, it would use the Library Catalogue. This would enable the catalogue and the web pages to be maintained by the cataloguing staff in one process. This paper, an updated version of a presentation at the LIANZA conference of New Zealand Librarians in October 2003, describes the processes required to put this decision into practice.