Displays of Arabic script on web‐based OPACs in GCC institutions

Abstract

PurposeThis study has the aim of evaluating the compliance of bilingual Arabic scripts web‐based catalogues in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC). It also seeks to highlight some of the challenges facing the exchange of bibliographic records and resource sharing among Arabic script online public access catalogues (OPACs).Design/methodology/approachTen OPACs in the GCC countries accessible via the internet were surveyed. Modified guidelines of OPAC displays published in the literature were used for evaluating the Arabic script display in the surveyed web‐based OPACs. The study emphasizes the absence of a dominant model for the display of bibliographic data in the surveyed OPACs. There is inconsistency in label wording, access points provided in record default display, hyperlink to bibliographic elements, and data sequence. MARC format is not utilized in over two thirds of the surveyed catalogues, as well as the Z39.50 protocol. The study argues that the web‐based OPAC could play a landmark role in networking the catalogues of the GCC University libraries as a web‐based e‐union catalogue.FindingsOPACs have broadened the capacity of the academic library in recording, indexing, archiving, and organising its growth‐oriented collections. The advent of the internet into the library setting has also provided OPACs with powerful searching and retrieval capabilities at a one‐stop portal. Meanwhile, great efforts are currently being done to design and operate an Arabic version of OPAC to be compatible with agreed‐upon MARC standards. This challenge sparked strong interest in evaluating the compliance of the bilingual (Arabic/English) web‐based OPAC operated particularly by some GCC University libraries.Originality/valueProvides an evaluation of the compliance of bilingual Arabic scripts web‐based catalogues in the GCC.