INFORUM 2011

The OPAC Is Dead

Author

Jane Burke, ProQuest, United States

Documents to download

• Presentation

Abstract

The traditional library online public access catalog is no longer relevant. What has changed in the environment that has caused the Death of the OPAC? This presentation will examine the attitudes of today’s end users and recent research into how the library “portal” is viewed by faculty and students today.

The traditional library OPAC takes a “precision” search approach to viewing the printed library collection. The author will take the position that this is neither the right approach nor broad enough for today’s researcher. She will provide some guidance on how library staff should spend their time and money in an era when end users do not necessarily appreciate the library, as she has discussed recently in a series of blog posts.

She will also discuss the different approaches that have been developing recently to provide a better end user experience as those users seek to “discover” what resource are available in the library. What open source offerings are being used? What commercial offerings are libraries examining? Finally, she will provide evidence as to whether these alternatives to the OPAC are working.