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Unit 8: Library Automation in Technical Processing

Word of this increase in efficiency spread, and the network quickly expanded to include libraries Notes
from all 50 states and around the world.

8.1.4 Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)

In 1975, Ohio State University Libraries installed computer terminals in its main lobby so that
patrons could directly search its library control system without help from a librarian
intermediary. The library control system became one of the early online catalogues. The catalogue
was searchable by author, title, author and title, call number, and Library of Congress subject
headings. There was also a computerized shelf list that patrons could browse. Most of the library
systems that were available in the 1970s performed a single function, such as circulation, and
this information was also made available to library patrons.
Computer-output-microform (COM) catalogues were another alternative to the card catalogue
that developed as a result of shared online cataloguing. Libraries that used these catalogues
generally had large collections (over 25,000 volumes, with a growth rate of at least 1,000 titles
per year), needed the catalogue in at least 20 locations, and were having difficulty managing the
logistics of maintaining a card catalogue because of the large volume (Boss & Marcum, 1980).
COM catalogues enjoyed only a brief period of popularity due to patrons’ clear preference for
online catalogues over microform. Online catalogues began to replace existing library card
catalogues in significant numbers during the 1980’s. A study of users’ reactions to four of these
systems indicated that the users preferred online catalogues to card catalogues (Moore, 1981).
This clear preference led to further development of the online catalogue. Online catalogues
provided more advantages to patrons than simply improved searching capabilities. These systems
were integrated with acquisitions and circulation processing so that added information about
on-order, in-process, and up-to-date circulation status information was available to patrons for
the first time.
By 1989, 50% of all library systems purchased had a patron access catalogue that was implemented
(Boss, 1989). Many card catalogue cabinets were discarded or sold. To ease the transition between
card catalogues and online catalogues, online catalogues were designed to mimic the functionality
of the card catalogue. Text-based catalogues were available remotely using the TELNET protocol,
but only relatively sophisticated computer-using library patrons accessed library catalogues
this way. That changed significantly with the advent of the World Wide Web.

8.1.5 Web-based Catalogues

Vendors developed Web-based versions of online public access catalogues to satisfy the demand
of librarians, but these catalogues replicated text-based catalogues, which were in turn based on
the card catalogue. Web-based catalogues, although presented through a graphical interface,
relied on Boolean searching, which was “still a retrieval technique designed for trained and
experienced users” (Antelman, Lynema and Pace, 2006, p. 128). Many libraries added catalogue
records for Web pages, but it quickly became clear that it would be impossible for librarians to
catalogue the Web in the way they had traditionally described print resources.

Did u know? Before librarians could fully respond to this new technology, the first Web
search engines such as Aliweb, WebCrawler, and Lycos and Web directories such as Yahoo!
were created.
Libraries became more selective about adding catalogue records with links to Web resources
and focused more on electronic resources for which the library paid. Some libraries created
catalogue records for individual titles in Web-based databases, only to find that database vendors’

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