A JOURNEY OF CARD CATALOGUE TO WEB-OPAC

 

A JOURNEY OF CARD CATALOGUE TO WEB-OPAC

 

 

 

Library catalogue is a list of all bibliographical information found in a library or group of libraries at several locations. The card catalogue was a well-known sight to library users for the generations, but it has been effectively replaced by the online catalogue. Online cataloguing has greatly enhanced the usability of catalogues, Online catalogue does not need to be sorted statically the users can be access the online catalogue with the help of a computer system. Most of the online catalogue provides a search facility for any word of the title, author, keywords, subject etc.

CARD CATALOGUE:

Information plays an important role in every human being. Library fulfills all the information requirements of every human being. Every person is not able to purchase all types of reading materials. So, they are dependent on libraries/ information centers for fulfills their information needs. Library has organize many documents like books, thesis, manuscripts, periodicals, pamphlets, maps, motion pictures, tapes and other printed and non printed materials. We can well imagine as to what will happen if these documents are not prepared systematically. Even if they are organized on shelves properly, no person whether user or staff will be able to know and remember what documents are available in the library, if the person does not know the subject of the required documents. So, we need an information retrieval system that is able to reveal that what the library has and whether a particular document is available in the library. This system should fulfill all the search approaches about the documents like author, title, publisher and call number etc. Such a retrieval system in the context of a library is called library catalogue. According to Clark (2000) “The library catalogue is an essential tool. It is an index or a key to the collection, containing an entry representing each item” The various types of library catalogue are used to find out the desired information of user community in the library. Traditionally, book catalogue and sheaf catalogue had been used in libraries for knowing about library collection. After these catalogues, the new system of card catalogue was adopted by the library and it worked very well for quite a long time during twentieth century. The card catalogue fulfills the various approaches of the users like author, title, subject and call number, etc. Card catalogue was quite useful tool of information retrieval system of the library. According to Harrod “The compilation of a list of documents or printed materials according to a set of rules so as to enable the consulter to know what items are available, and from the class number or other means of identification, where they may be found”

ONLINE PUBLIC ACCESS CATALOGUE (OPAC)

With the introduction of computers in libraries, various library activities started being automated. Catalogue is the earliest component of library to be computerized. Initially, computers were used by the library for preparation of catalogue entries and the same were then printed in the form of cards and thus, catalogue was generated using computers. With the passage of time and increased reliability of computerized catalogue, the system was opened for users. The interface was made more users friendly so that a person with minimum exposure to computers could use it conveniently. This provision of making available bibliographic records of library holdings to the users for their search through different approaches is called Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). The library staff and the users can access it with the help of computers within the library or within campus wide intranet. The OPAC has emerged recently in Indian libraries. Many libraries today are involved in the installation, training and use of OPAC system. OPACs are the keys to library’s collection because they allow users to search out what documents are available in the collection. Online public access to a library catalogue has become an important part of library service over the last few years. The rapid retrieval and the interactive capacity with online system which allows the search to be modified dynamically as the session progresses through the standard online search capabilities such as keyword search, boolean combinations, truncations and limiting search results by date, publisher, language or material formats has made these systems quite popular. According to Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science (ODLIS) defines OPAC as, “An acronym for online public access catalog, a database composed of bibliographic records describing the books and other materials owned by a library or library system, accessible via public terminals or workstations usually concentrated near the reference desk to make it easy for users to request the assistance of a trained reference librarian. Most online catalogs are searchable by author, title, subject, and keywords and allow users to print, download, or export records to an e-mail account.” According to SIRSI: Glossary of terms defines OPAC as, “A computer workstation used to search a library's catalogue. OPAC can refer to either the actual workstation in the library, or to the interface provided by the library that is accessible from anywhere”

GENERATIONS OF OPAC

The Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs) were introduced in the U.K in early eighties. These have also been introduced in many Indian libraries. According to Hildreth (1995), OPAC can be categorized into three generations on the basis of the evolutionary changes to incorporate novel features in data content, access point and user interface. OPACs were derived from circulation or from cataloguing systems and were categorized as being known item finding tools which provide a few access points like author, title, class number and subject headings. The search pattern was more or less same to that of traditional catalogue and provided title assistance to the users. In first generation OPAC, there is not an exact match. In this generation OPAC displayed these records which are nearest to the particular search. Second generation OPACs are similar to information retrieval (IR) system and many features are borrowed from commercial bibliographical information systems. Second generations OPAC in the late 1980’s showed major improvements. These OPACs were operated by a command language which is simplified for use of inexperienced user. In this generation we could use keyword searching with its use of Boolean operators and increasing the number of access points for searching. In second generation OPAC searches were of basically two types.

• Phrase searching or pre-coordinated subject headings.
•  Keyword searches on indexing data in the bibliographic records.

The third generation of OPAC system has combined the important features of the first and second generations by providing both phrase searching and keyword searching. In third generation OPAC is converted to web-based OPAC system. The online catalogues are changing ever since, depending on the trends in information technology and its application in libraries. Each technology develops its own OPAC based on software they use, thus providing a new breed of services to retrieve bibliographic information of its collection and each system will be in operation for few years. OPAC system has progressively more migrated to Web-based OPAC interface. In digital era Web-OPAC is the newest components of information retrieval system. OPAC is connected with only computer terminals while Web-OPAC is connected with Internet. We can search any document in a particular library through Web-based OPAC from anywhere with the help of internet connectivity.