User perceptions of online public library catalogues

Abstract

Online Public Library Catalogues (OPACs) are widely used electronic library catalogues giving a wealth of remote access to library information resources. Users should be involved early in the OPAC development cycle process in order to ensure a usable and functional interface, as the integration of user-defined requirements of OPACs, along with the other Human-Computer Interaction considerations, offer a better understanding of user perceptions and expectations respect of OPACs, ultimately resulting in truly user-centred OPACs. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to establish user suggestions for a typical OPAC application's functionality and features. To this end, an experiment was undertaken to find out the type of interaction features that users prefer to have in an OPAC. The study revealed that regardless of users' Information Technology (IT) backgrounds, their functionality expectations of OPACs are the same as users are expecting OPACs to facilitate easier ways to achieve their tasks. However, based on users' previous experiences with OPACs, their requirements with respect to specific features may change.

Diving in at the Deep End

“…A large body of work has investigated general search behaviors and processes [1,13,25], and, more specifically, search processes in library catalogs (e.g., [4,10,18,23,27,42]), public libraries [30,36,37,38], and book stores [7]. When designing our in-situ search system, we followed designcentered models of the search process [40], as well as contemporary guidelines toward designing search interfaces [16,46].…”

“…Early studies found that while targeted, known-item searches are well-supported, open-ended subject searches are problematic [2,26,29,45]. More recent studies confirm that this still holds true: people still often find OPAC interfaces difficult to use, in particular compared to canonical web search engines which support more free-form queries [18,23]. Studying book search strategies in public libraries, Mikkonen and Vakkari found the catalog to be the least popular tactic [30].…”

Reprint of: Client interfaces to the Virtual Observatory Registry

“…For instance, the OPACs (Online Public Access Catalogs; see Kani-Zabihi et al (2008) for a treatment from about the time of RI1 design) established in the library community, while comparable for the purpose of locating information resources, could not efficiently address the use cases, and no broadly accepted standard for client, rather than user, interfaces to OPACs, lent itself to adoption by the VO community.…”

Catalog Users “In the Wild”: The Potential of an Ethnographic Approach to Studies of Library Catalogs and Their Users

“…92 The British Library's desire "to provide a system for real users" 93 in their development of the OPAC'97 led them to break with tradition and transfer project management away from the IT department to one centered on user services. This shift was phrased in terms of favoring a methodology that understood the problems and requirements of users over one that concentrated on delivering a reliable, timely system on budget.…”