Page 21 - DLIS408_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY-APPLICATIONSL SCIENCES

Information Technology and Application

Notes Stagnation and Dissatisfaction

There is stagnation in the development of online catalogues. Although, the earlier character-based
interfaces were replaced with the web, both the design and the underlying search technology of
most systems did not advance much beyond the developed stage in the late 1980s.

At the same time, organizations outside of libraries began to develop more sophisticated
information retrieval systems. Web search engines like Google and popular e-commerce websites
such as Amazon.com provided simpler to use (yet more powerful) systems that could provide
relevancy ranked search results using probabilistic and vector-based queries.

Prior to the widespread use of the Internet, the online catalogue was often the first information
retrieval system for the library users. 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 different 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.

Task How newest generation of library catalogue different from earlier OPAC?

Union Catalogues

Although, library catalogues typically reflect the holdings of a single library, they can also contain
the holdings of a group or consortium of libraries. These systems, known as union catalogues, are
usually designed to aid the borrowing of books and other materials among the member institutions

via interlibrary loan. The largest such union catalogue is World Cat, which includes the holdings
of over 70,000 libraries worldwide.
Related Systems

There are a number of systems that share much in common with library catalogues, but have
traditionally been distinguished from them. Libraries utilize these systems to search for items not
traditionally covered by a library catalogue.
They include bibliographic databases such as Medline, ERIC, Psyc INFO, and many others which
index journal articles and other research data. There are also a number of applications aimed at
managing documents, photographs, and other digitized or born-digital items. Particularly in
academic libraries, these systems (often known as digital library systems or institutional repository
systems) assist with efforts to preserve documents created by faculty and students.

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