Subject Searching on OPACs: a General Survey of Facilities available on OPACS in Academic Libraries in the UK
| Published date | 01 March 1988 |
| Pages | 8-15 |
| Date | 01 March 1988 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040393 |
| Author | Fran Slack |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
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Subject Searching on OPACs: a
General Survey of Facilities available
on OPACS in Academic Libraries in
the UK
by
Fran Slack
Research
Student,
Department of Library and
Information
Studies,
Manchester Polytechnic
Introduction
T
he introduction of online public access
catalogues (OPACs) has been one of the
most rapid developments in library and informa-
tion work in this decade. Since the early 1980s
the academic sector has led the way in the
United Kingdom
in
establishing OPACs
as
part
of the library
scene.
Users have benefitted from
being allowed interactive access to the
catalogue, for both known-item and subject
searching. A survey carried out
in
1985 (Wood,
1986) showed that at that time approximately
one-third of British university and polytechnic
libraries possessed OPACs. Less than three
years later
this
proportion has risen to
one-half,
with the trend still progressing upwards.
A
survey was recently carried out
as
the prelimi-
nary stage of a research programme being un-
dertaken in the Department of Library and
Information Studies, Manchester Polytechnic.
The main purpose of the research is to evaluate
help and instruction facilities available for inex-
perienced users of OPACs in British academic
libraries. Research has been carried out in the
USA into general offline and online user assis-
tance (eg Markey, 1984) and into various
aspects of subject searching (eg Lawrence,
1985;
Cochrane, 1985) but
the
specific
help
and
instruction requirements for subject searching
have not been studied before in the UK.
Research in this area will
be
carried out early in
1989 and findings will be published in due
course.
This
article outlines the general develop-
ment of OPACs in academic libraries, as
revealed by the survey.
Methodology
The sample population for the research
programme is those universities in the UK and
polytechnics in England and Wales having
OPACs. A total of
50
libraries which have on-
line catalogues available to the public were iden-
tified. In order to discover the current situation
in the UK
a questionnaire
was
prepared and
dis-
tributed to these libraries. The survey was car-
ried out in early
1988,
questionnaires being sent
out at
the
beginning of February and most of the
responses being received
by
mid-March. Out of.
50 questionnaires 47 were returned, a 94%
response rate. Within this sample, 15 OPACs
are run in polytechnic libraries and 35 OPACs
in university libraries. This indicates that ap-
proximately 50% of British academic libraries
now have OPACs.
The questionnaire was divided into three main
sections covering:
• general information about the OPAC;
• facilities for subject searching;
• help and instruction facilities available to
OPAC users.
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