Abstract
Reports results of a questionnaire sur vey of UK academic libraries to deter mine the level of use of online public access catalogues (OPACs) and the development of inhouse subject indexes. Seventy-five respondents reported having commercial systems and seven reported inhouse systems. Data includes: named systems in use and numbers of libraries using each system; percentages of bibliographic records in machine-readable format; types of materials; and record formats (UKMARC, LC MARC etc). Reports the most common access points for searching the OPACs (author, key word), methods of generating terms to be used for subject searching, sub ject heading sources (LCSH, MeSH, PRECIS) and classification schemes (Dewey, UDC). Results show that all universities and polytechnics now have OPACs and only the smaller colleges do not. OPACs are moving towards comprehensive coverage of academic library stocks with the MARC record the most popular for mat. The three main subject access strategies involve: Library of Congress Subject Headings; inhouse strategies; and strategies not based on controlled terminology. Draws heav ily on the results of an earlier survey by Fran Slack (1988) Vine,(72) (November), 8-15.
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