Innovation of Information: The Catalogue

When we think of the library catalogue, most of us –at least, those of us who were around in those times- think of the card catalogue. However, electronic catalogues have been around since the 1960’s and OPACs (Online Public Access Catalogues) since the 1970s. The beauty of OPACs is that they can be accessed anywhere there is a computer with an Internet access, at any time –something that is especially useful for people doing research who want to use the online databases their library subscribes to. The downfall is that they can be quite difficult to use and so were mostly only used by librarians. (Waller 2010)

The current solution is to use overlay programs. In 2006, North Carolina State University and Endeca, a commercial research corporation worked together to develop the first overlay which “ allowed the online catalog to break free of the rest of the library system and enabled libraries to make customizations to the catalog interface and make the search for library materials easier on users” (Emanuel, 2009). This greatly improved upon the problem of the usability of catalogues, but did not completely solve it. So the overlays are being innovated too, in what is referred to as Nextgen catalogues.

The previous search system in online catalogues was more about finding a specific item whereas Nextgen is more about making a general inquiry, getting numerous results, and narrowing it down from there by making more searches within the current results. For some, this can be an exasperating process, but for others it makes searching more familiar as it is reminiscent of the search systems employed by Internet browsers. (Emanuel, 2009)

While Nextgen is a step closer to the ideal catalogue it is only a next step and not the final. As technology continues to advance, we can expect that so, too, will online catalogues. The ability for the innovation of information is limitless.

Sources:

Emanuel, J. (2009, Winter). Next Generation Catalogs: What Do They Do and Why Should We Care?. Accidental Technologist, 49(2), 117-120.

Waller, V. (2010). Accessing the collection of a large public library: an analysis of OPAC use. libres, 20(1), 1-27.