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Unit 5: MAchine-Readable Cataloguing and Online

are given of the ways in which it is being used and is likely to be used in the future, and a number of Notes
implementation manuals are mentioned which have been developed to assist in its use.

5.3 History of Online Public Access Catalogue

Early online catalogues

Although a handful of experimental systems existed as early as the 1960s, the first large-scale online
catalogues were developed at Ohio State University in 1975 and the Dallas Public Library in 1978.
These and other early online catalogue systems tended to closely reflect the card catalogues that
they were intended to replace. Using a dedicated terminal or telnet client, users could search a
handful of pre-coordinate indexes and browse the resulting display in much the same way they
had previously navigated the card catalogue.
Throughout the 1980s, the number and sophistication of online catalogues grew. The first commercial
systems appeared, and would by the end of the decade largely replace systems built by libraries
themselves. Library catalogues began providing improved search mechanisms, including Boolean
and keyword searching, as well as ancillary functions, such as the ability to place holds on items
that had been checked-out.
At the same time, libraries began to develop applications to automate the purchase, cataloguing,
and circulation of books and other library materials. These applications, collectively known as an
integrated library system (ILS) or library management system, included an online catalogue as the
public interface to the system’s inventory. Most library catalogues are closely tied to their underlying
ILS system.

Stagnation and dissatisfaction
The 1990s saw a relative stagnation in the development of online catalogues. Although the earlier
character-based interfaces were replaced with ones for the web, both the design and the underlying
search technology of most systems did not advance much beyond that developed in the late 1980s.
Prior to the widespread use of the Internet, the online catalogue was often the first information
retrieval system library users ever encountered. Now accustomed to web search engines, newer
generations of library users have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the complex (and often arcane)
search mechanisms of older online catalogue systems.
This has, in turn, led to vocal criticisms of these systems within the library community itself, and in
recent years to the development of newer (often termed ‘next-generation’) catalogues.

Next-generation catalogues
The newest generation of library catalogue systems are distinguished from earlier OPACs by their
use of more sophisticated search technologies, including relevancy ranking and faceted search, as
well as features aimed at greater user interaction and participation with the system, including tagging
and reviews.
These newer systems are almost always independent of the library’s integrated library system, instead
providing drivers that allow for the synchronization of data between the two systems. While older
online catalogue systems were almost exclusively built by ILS vendors, libraries are increasingly
turning to next generation catalogue systems built by enterprise search companies and open source
projects, often led by libraries themselves. The costs associated with these new systems, however,
have slowed their adoption, particularly at smaller institutions.

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