Revitalizing the Library OPAC: Interface, Searching, and Display Challenges

Abstract

REvitaLizinG tHE LiBRaRY opaC | mi anD WEnG 5The 1 More than half of U.S. residents used Google for their searches. Internet search engines dominate the information-seeking landscape. Academic libraries are the ones affected most, because many college students are satisfied with the answers they find on the Internet for their assignments, and they end up not taking advantage of the many quality resources in their libraries.For many years, before the Internet search engine emerged, library catalogs were the sole information-seeking gateway. Just as the one-time industry giant Kodak has lost ground to digital photography, academic library OPACs are losing ground to online search engines. All along we academic librarians have devotedly and assiduously produced good cataloging records for the public to use. We have diligently and faithfully educated and helped our faculty and students find the proper library resources to fulfill their research needs and assignment requirements. We feel good about what we have achieved. Why have our users switched to online search engines? ■ The evolution of user behaviorIt is technology and rising user expectations that have contributed to the changes in user behavior. As Coyle and Hillmann pointed out: "Today's library users have a different set of information skills from those of just a few decades ago. They live in a highly interactive, networked world and routinely turn to Web search engines for their information needs." 2 A recent study conducted by the University of Georgia on undergraduate research behavior in using the university's electronic library concluded that Internet sites and online instruction modules are the primary sources for their research. 3 The students' year of study did not make much of a difference in their choices. Recently, OCLC identified three major trends in the needs of today's information consumers-self-service (moving to self-sufficiency), satisfaction, and seamlessness.5 Services provided by Google, Amazon, and similar companies are the major cause of these emerging trends. Customers have wholeheartedly embraced these products because of their ease of use and quick delivery of "good enough" results. Researchers do not need to take information literacy classes to learn how to use an online search engine. They do not need to worry about forgetting important but infrequently used search rules or commands. In addition, the search results delivered by online search engines are sorted using relevance ranking systems that are more user-friendly than the ones currently employed by academic library OPACs. These are just some of the features that current academic library OPACs fail to deliver. In 2004, Campbell and Fast presented their analysis of an exploratory study of university students' perceptions of searching OPACs and Web search engines. 6 They found that "[s]tudents express a distinct preference for search engines over library catalogues, finding the catalogue baffling and difficult to use effectively." As a result, library OPACs, because they d...

The Impact of RDS on Usage of Electronic Content in UK Academic Libraries: Selected Results from a UKSG-Funded Project

“…In addition, the single search box, emulating the search engine experience, brings a new dimension to information searching via library portals, bringing down the walls between library collections. It addresses many of the challenges and shortcomings posed by OPACs -some of which are discussed in Mi and Weng (2008) -and other portals of individual collections or resources. There are, however, still uncertainties about whether RDS are going to replace OPACs in the near future.…”

“…across first year undergraduates, second/third year undergraduates, postgraduates and PhD students, and faculty. Furthermore, Mi and Weng (2008) attribute the ineffectiveness of OPAC searches conducted by students to the need to use Boolean logic, instead of the implicit 'AND' logic used by search engines. Mi and Weng (2008) claim that this is why students have generally embraced search engines so rapidly, adding that "customers [as information consumers] have wholeheartedly embraced these products [Google, Amazon and similar companies] (Mi and Weng, 2008, p.5).…”

Le catalogue réinventé

“…Un outil qui ne correspond plus aux attentes des chercheurs On relève des problèmes de conception d'interface (Mi et Weng, 2008) qui rendent l'utilisation du catalogue difficile sans formation spécifique. Il y a, en effet, un contraste marqué entre l'unique boîte à mots-clés de Google et les sélections multiples offertes par les catalogues traditionnels.…”

The New User Environment: The End of Technical Services?

“…What can libraries and librarians do to deliver an OPAC that is as good as search engines to better serve our users? 28 Of course, the authors are biased toward the OPAC and wish to make it better, given that the last sentence in their abstract is, "Revitalizing the OPAC is one of the pressing issues that has to be accomplished." Users' search patterns have already moved away from the OPAC as a discovery tool; why should personnel and resource investment continue to be allocated toward something that users have turned away from?…”