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Unit 7: Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)

Following recommendations have been made for optimum utilisation of OPAC facility in Notes
the University library:

The study observed that the OPAC does not offer various essential features such as
spell check software, quick search, online reservation, online renewal, new arrivals
and book cover display facilities. Moreover these features, there is no provision for
links to electronic sources. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the said
features must be incorporated in OPAC.

OPAC should have more user-friendly online help that may provide direction to
users to start a search and to show next steps during a search.

To facilitate the users, the University library should organise user education
programmes on the use of different techniques and strategies in retrieving
information about the documents. The instruction programmes may enhance user
knowledge and basic skills for searching OPAC.
It is evident from the study that the users were not having basic skills of searching
OPAC. Therefore, they needed the assistance of library staff near OPAC terminals
for optimum utilisation of this service.
Source: http://article.sapub.org/pdf/10.5923.j.ijis.20120206.01.pdf

7.5 Summary

With regard to all the differences between the card catalogue (as a representative of the
manual system) and the online catalogue (as a representative of the online environment),
it can be concluded that the interactive online catalogue has many advantages in terms of
content, structure and search/retrieval/display capabilities.
Today’s online catalogues provide more effective access to bibliographic information
through capabilities that were not possible in the manual catalogue.
These capabilities have affected the ways in which users use the library catalogue and it
seems that, with further developments in information technology, there will be more
opportunities for enhancing, extending and expanding the online catalogue.
Similarly, access to remote library catalogues and other bibliographical tools has been
significantly improved through the demonstrated superior performance and effectiveness
of computers and telecommunication technology.

The online catalogue is now evolving into one of several components of a larger, integrated
information system.
Thus, remote access places OPACs in a potentially key position in relation to information
systems generally.
In the 90s, the computer is now an integral part of modern society and has caused
fundamental changes in many aspects of our life, most basically in the ways we organise
information for fast and effective retrieval.
However, unlike in the manual environment, cataloguers do not have control over the
whole processes of record creation and catalogue construction as manipulation and output
of bibliographic data are less controlled by cataloguing codes.

From a comparison of the online catalogue and the card catalogue it can also be concluded
that the cataloguing standards which are based on the concept of the traditional catalogue
need to be reassessed and redesigned in terms of their relevance to the new electronic
environment.

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