Kid-Friendly Catalog: TLC releases LS2 Kids

LS2 Kids features “cover flow” animation

After a soft launch this summer at the American Library Association annual conference, The Library Corporation (TLC) released its LS2 Kids catalog interface in October. LS2 Kids emphasizes book covers and “cover flow” animation over hard-to-interpret bibliographic result lists, based on children’s responses to usability tests. More detailed record information can be found, too, though an item’s circulation status is simplified to one of two indicators—In (in green) or Out (in red)—easily visible from the results list. The software includes three access points geared toward young ones. An animated “category wheel” features icons representing pre-selected content on topics like “tigers” and “money.” A scrollable sidebar visually highlights popular children’s series and directs users to a chronological listing of the installments held by the library. Finally, a search bar—with on-the-fly spell check—allows for free-form keyword searches for those users with a topic in mind. LS2 Kids works with TLC’s Library.Solution and Library.Solution for Schools. For a demo, visit ls2kids.tlcdelivers.com.