Software Development

The Software Development team is responsible for Pika, the Digital Archive, and other applications developed by Marmot, including Offline Circulation and data migration tools. 

Pika Discovery Layer

Marmot has been working on their open-source Pika Discovery Layer since 2009.  Pika was created to address the needs of patrons by solving several common usability issues: all formats of a work are grouped together, patrons can serendipitously discover titles to read next, and all functionality works on any size device with responsive design.  Pika is available to all Marmot members as well as Discovery Partners that work with Marmot. 

Digital Archive

In the middle of 2014, a critical mass of Marmot directors identified the need to start a digital repository for use by all Marmot members.  The Digital Repository Task Force was formed in September of 2014 to evaluate digital repository needs and evaluate potential solutions. The DRTF spent a year learning from other institutions that already have digital repositories or that set them up in the past.  At the end of this period, we hired full-time staff to support our archive and have begun development on the archive. 

The archive uses Islandora for the back-end administration interface and Pika as a Discovery Layer.  Archive content is presented alongside traditional catalog content to increase usability and better surface the unique content of our libraries.

Current Development Roadmap