Page 142 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Unit 7: Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)

maintaining the network. Integration and standardization are the keywords in the increasing Notes
movements towards, and promotion of, interconnected telecommunicating automated systems”.
Despite this emphasis on the significance of standardisation in the online catalogue, this concept
has been considered only in the inputting of data elements in bibliographic description and not
in the output and display, whereas in the card catalogue both input and output are standardised.
For example, both the card catalogue and the online catalogue conform to the ISBD standard for
the input format, i.e., the order of areas, punctuation and levels of description. However, in
online catalogues the output format is not fixed as in card catalogues and may be flexible.
As Gorman and associates (1990: 32) state, the standardisation and formalisation of description
and access points is crucial to the online environment and to the effective exchange of bibliographic
records. As an important concept that has developed over the last hundred years to meet the
changing forms of the catalogue and the needs of the profession, standardisation will continue
in the future and as Wajenberg (1990: 497) points out, at an accelerated pace.

Input Inconsistencies and Level of Tolerance

A major difference between a manual and an automated catalogue lies in the fact that the
creation of bibliographic records for online catalogues demands more precision and logic in
terms of typography, spelling, punctuation, spacing, coding of fields and subfields. This is a
critical requirement for computerised systems, since such errors can result in a serious separation
or an improper sequencing of entries and therefore can lead to the irretrievability of records. In
other words, any errors, even if very small, for instance a faulty keystrokes, will be magnified
in the online catalogue (Knutson, 1990: 24). However, in a manual system, when filing catalogue
cards or when retrieving information, the human brain can often ignore such minor errors and
treat them as if they are correct and file them in the right place.
Errors and inconsistencies can be corrected in the process of filing cards, whereas in the automated
catalogue there is a lower level of tolerance towards such errors as variations in format, filing
and indexing, and literal and logical inconsistencies within the catalogue. In general, the online
catalogue is far less forgiving of cataloguing and typographical errors than is the card catalogue.

7.4.2 Construction and Maintenance of the Catalogue

Structure and Content of the Catalogue

By ‘structure of the catalogue’ is meant how the catalogue is built up, the kinds and content of
files and indexes constituting it and the relationships of these files and indexes to one another.

Example: A card catalogue, whether in dictionary or divided form, may include different
files such as authors (personal and corporate); references; titles (including other title information
and series titles); subject headings (including references) and shelf lists.

The advent of the online catalogue has given new dimensions to the catalogue’s structure. It is
generally maintained that the online catalogue can support a more complex yet more dynamic
structure than that of the card catalogue. The online file may be independent and self-contained,
it may be related to files of similar scope and structure or it may be integrated with other files
such as holdings, circulations, acquisitions and authority files. The online catalogue provides
services that were not part of the traditional library catalogue. Access to circulation information,
status information, holding information, indexing of special collections, serials and so on have
become possible through the development of the contents and structure of the catalogue (Potter,
1991: 77).

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 137