OPAC Design Enhancements and Their Effects on Circulation and Resource Sharing within the Library Consortium Environment

Abstract

A longitudinal study of three discrete online public access catalog (OPAC) M ost previous studies of online public access catalog (OPAC) use and design have centered on transactionlog analysis and user survey results in the academic library environment. Measures of patron success or lack thereof have traditionally been expressed in the form of such concepts as "zerohit" analysis or the "branching" analysis of Kantor and, later, Ciliberti. 1 Missing from the majority of the literature on OPAC study, however, are the effects that use and design have had on public library patron borrowing practices.Major drawbacks to transactionlog analyses and user surveys as a measure of successful OPAC use include a lack of standardization and the inherent difficulties in interpreting resulting data. As Peters notes, "[s]urveys measure users' opinions about online catalogs and their perceptions of their successes or failures when using them, while transaction logs simply record the searches conducted by users. Surveys," he concludes, "mea sure attitudes, while transaction logs measure a specific form of behavior." 2 In both cases it is difficult, in many instances, to draw clear conclusions from either method.Circulation figures, on the other hand, measure a more narrowly defined level of patron success. Circulation is a discrete output that is the direct result of patrons' initiated interaction with one or many library collections, one or many levels of library technology. With the recent advent of such enhanced OPAC functionality as patronplaced holds on items from broader and broader catalogs, online catalogs now more than ever not only serve as search mechanisms but also as ways for patrons to directly obtain materials from multiple sources. It follows that an investigation of the possible effects such enhancements may have on general circulation trends is warranted. ■ Literature reviewDuring the midtolate 1980s, transactionlog analysis was introduced as an inexpensive and easy method of looking at OPAC use in primarily the academic library environment. Peters's transactionlog survey of more than thirteen thousand searches executed over a five month period at the University of MissouriKansas City remains particularly instructive today for its large sample and transferable design as well as its interpreta tion of results. 3Here analysis was broken into two phases. In phase one, usage patterns by search type and failure rates as measured by zero hits were examined as dependent vari ables with search type as the independent variable in a comparison study. Phase two took this one step further in the assigning of what Peters termed "probable cause" of zero hits. These probable causes fell into patterns that, in turn, resulted in the identification of fourteen discernable error types that included such things as typographical errors and searches for items not in the catalog. Once again, search type formed the independent variable while error type shaped the dependent variable in a simple study of error types as a percentage...

Engine Of Innovation: Building the High Performance Catalog

“…11 Michael J. Bennett has studied the effect of catalog enhancements on circulation and interlibrary loan. 12 Service and the online catalog have a new meaning in Morgan's idea of "services against texts," supporting "use and understand" in addition to the traditional "find and get." 13 Lorcan Dempsey commented on the catalog as an identifiable service and predicts new formulations for library services based on the network--level orientation of search and discovery.…”

A library circulation system for city and special libraries

“…Some of those services are described by Falk (2005). Bennett (2007) describes findings according to which OPAC enhancements result in significant increase in circulation. Also, efficiency of circulation is increased by using RFID technology in libraries according to Kern (2004).…”

Research support through resource sharing: challenges and opportunities for Irish academic libraries

“…Recently, however, there has been some resurgence in interest in the concept and focus of resource sharing (Jackson, 2005;Williams, 2008;Bennett, 2007;Clark and Bailey-Hainer, 2007;Oberlander, 2007;Dunsire, 2007 to name but some), and while unsurprising, it is nevertheless interesting to note, that much of the impetus for this new interest and discussion is drawn from interlibrary loan services and experiences, and driven mainly, but not exclusively, by the need to reconfigure interlibrary loan services to meet users' current needs and expectations. Although interlibrary loan services are an integral and vital part of the knowledge chain, the focus of this paper will be the challenges of resource sharing in a broader sense.…”