Page 145 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Library Automation

Notes are not available in the manual catalogue. Online catalogues are able to generate both a greater
number of access points as well as new searching capabilities that enable the user to search the
catalogue with little information to hand. In addition to controlled-vocabulary searches by
author, title and subject headings, for which relevant indexes have been created and maintained
in the online catalogue, it is possible to search bibliographic records through access points such
as other title information, series, standard numbers and any other significant data through
keyword searching. In general, although there are still shortcomings in the searching capabilities
of online catalogues, particularly in subject searching (Markey, 1984; Crawford, 1987a; Klugman,
1989; Lancaster, 1991; Larson, 1991), the findings of various studies indicate that users show
much enthusiasm in online catalogues’ searching capabilities.

Output and Display

Display of bibliographic information is another major aspect in which the online catalogue
departs greatly from the card catalogue. Surveying OPACs in a number of Canadian academic
libraries, Cherry et al. (1994) report that screen display is the best developed area in online
catalogues. The last step at the catalogue, viewing a search result through the display of the
bibliographic record(s), is what the user actually gains from the system. The quality of such a
display affects the overall usefulness of the catalogue (Crawford, 1987: 192). While the form and
content of bibliographic records in the input/output format in the card catalogue (even when
computer-produced) are fixed, the online catalogue permits a flexible format, with the possibility
of displaying bibliographic information in a variety of ways and at different levels. The ways in
which bibliographic information is presented in the online catalogue in response to searches
vary from system to system. Each system has its own techniques for manipulation of a search
result. This is impossible in the card technology where space limitations and the fixed form of
bibliographic description do not permit any flexibility or manipulation of search results.
The level of bibliographic description is usually flexible and can be designed according to the
user’s needs. On the other hand and from a system perspective, as Boll (1990: 20) points out, there
is a range of display formats suitable for a computer screen or a page printout rather than a three
by five inch card. Online display formats usually include: (1) ‘brief-listing display’ which shows,
on one or more screens, the overall results of a search through ‘author’, ‘title’ and ‘date’ of
publication, (2) ‘medium-level display’ containing the standard bibliographic description, access
points and status and location information, and (3) ‘full bibliographic display’ which shows full
description with all access points, including added entries, and may contain summary and/or
table of contents of the item.

Another major difference between the online catalogue and the card catalogue is the way in
which data elements in a record make up and represent a bibliographic record. Reynolds (1985:
501) points out three functions in this regard: the labelling of data elements, the sequence in
which data elements appear and the spacing between them. The online catalogue can include
identifying labels before data elements for distinguishing the bibliographic text in a record.
Labels may be highlighted, or displayed in uppercase characters or in a different colour. In
relation to the sequence of data elements appearing in a bibliographic record, there is a fairly
high degree of uniformity among online catalogues (Reynolds, 1985: 501). As in the card catalogue,
the arrangement usually follows the numerical sequence of MARC tags or the ISBD order. Some
online catalogues do not incorporate ISBD punctuation on the basis that users do not comprehend
such ‘secret punctuation’ (Crawford, 1987: 196).
However, it should be noted that a number of problems may arise from the differences in the
input and output formats in the online catalogue. A problem which would be difficult for the
user to understand is that the relationships of headings (i.e., access points) to bibliographic data
may not be clear to him/her. For example, the role (i.e., the responsibility) of persons associated

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