Newcastle University Library has been using OCLC's LS/2000 for cataloguing and an OPAC since March 1985. To provide greater network access to the OPAC, it was decided in 1987 to use the CATS software (from Cambridge University Library) on the University mainframe (an Amdahl running MTS) to provide an alternative OPAC, networked round the campus and over JANET. This OPAC is part of the University Information Service. The CATS search program is written in FORTRAN 77 and provides public access searching of the catalogue by keywords taken from author, title and subject headings in the MARC record. (See VINE 63 and 47 for further details.) We have thereby gained the opportunity to compare two different systems running on the same database, and also a back‐up OPAC if LS/2000 is not available, for example during maintenance.

Describes how Advance online public access catalogue (OPAC) was introduced to Newcastle University Library in September 1993 and shows how users adapted to this system. Suggests the benefits of the OPAC.

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