Page 20 - DLIS408_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY-APPLICATIONSL SCIENCES

Unit 1: Library Automation

Shelving Notes

The circulation desk also handles the shelving of items used from the Reserve section and also the
reference section.

Lost and Found

Some circulation desks also provide a lost and found service. This includes commonly found items
such as library cards/matric card, laptops, wallets, computer media and portable devices.

Task Write the role of check-in in Circulation desk.

1.11 Serials Control
For serials control, data to be entered are title, frequency, address of the publisher, address of the
vendor, year, volume number., expected date of arrival, date of receipt, etc. Once the data for all
the titles are entered, the database is ready.
Hereafter as the issues of periodicals are received, data relating to that are continuously entered.
At fixed intervals, the non-receipt of the issues is checked, and reminders sent. The computer itself
can generate the reminder giving all the details of issues not received including the address of the
publisher/vendor.

1.12 Online Public Access Catalogue
An Online Public Access Catalogue (often abbreviated as OPAC or simply Library Catalogue) is
an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Users search a library
catalogue principally to locate books and other material physically located at a library.

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.
The 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.

Did u know? Throughout 1980s, the number and sophistication of online catalogues increased.

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.

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